This Life of Secrets and Danger
by starrynightshade
Summary: "Our parents didn't want this life for us — this life of secrets and danger. " But when the children of the Avengers risk losing one of their own, they must use the skills their parents never wanted them to have to save her life and unravel a sinister plan in the process. Steve/Sharon, Tony/Pepper, Clint/Natasha, Bruce/Betty
1. The Call

**Okinowa, Japan**

_Sasha_

"You can do better than that." I teased as Kyler dodged her opponent's strike. She shot me a glare before returning her attention to the task at hand.

An insistent beeping came from the device at my wrist. _Please don't be Mom and Dad._ I tapped the screen, accepting the video call. "Liam."

"Hey, Sasha! How's Japan?" He asked, giving me one of his stupid, adorable grins. "Where are you guys?" He asked, looking behind me. His face fell into an annoyed expression. "You guys are fighting aren't you?"

"No." I lied. My sister's opponent hit the ground with a loud thud. "Maybe."

"Sasha, this was supposed to be a vacation. You promised your parents you wouldn't train. You know they don't want you guys getting into all of this."

"Come on, Rogers. You didn't really think we would go on vacation to the birthplace of karate and not brush up on our skills, did you?"

He was right, of course. Our parents didn't want this life for us — this life of secrets and danger. But I think that made us want it all the more. We fought harder, learned more, dispersed ourselves across the globe to prove to them that we were never meant for the "normal" life they thought they had deprived us of.

"Well, I hope you've had your fill because we need you guys to come home." He replied. "The jet should be there at 12:00 your time. All the files and documents that you need have been sent to your tablet. Once you pick up Isabelle you can fill her in on everything."

"What? Why are we being sent back home?" I asked, blowing a stray lock of copper hair out of my face.

"I'm just the messenger." Liam shrugged. "Once you get on the jet you can access the files that have been sent to you. They'll explain this whole thing."

"Liam, what aren't you te-" I started.

"Bye Sash. Fly safe." And with that the screen went black.

"Dammit, Liam." I mumbled at the blank screen.

"Trouble in paradise?" Kyler teased, walking towards me. As she brushed aside her honey-blonde curls to towel off the back of her neck I could see a brief flash of the arrow tattoo she had received two weeks earlier.

"You know as well as I do that Liam Rogers is as interested in me as you are in Nolan Stark." I could see Kyler falter. If she wanted to continue teasing me she was going to have to own up to her feelings for Tony Stark's youngest son.

"I'm going to take a shower." She said, ending the conversation.

"Don't be too long, we leave in less than two hours!" I called after her.

**Ludhiana, India**

_Isabelle_

It felt like I had only been asleep for minutes when a pinging noise from my tablet woke me up. Still half asleep, I accepted the video call. "Daddy, I told you I'd call when I woke up." I said rubbing the sleep from my eyes. When I looked back I realized that it was not my father looking back at me from the screen, but Andrew Stark.

"Sorry Isabelle, I figured you'd be awake by now. It's about 6:30 there isn't it?" He asked, running a hand through his rust colored hair.

"I sort of had a late night." I said quietly, trying not to wake the elderly couple I was staying with.

Andrew's face fell for a second. "Oh."

"I got to help one of the women from the clinic deliver a baby." I gushed. "It was… exciting. But, I didn't get back until a couple of hours ago."

My heart started fluttering in my chest when he smiled at me and shook his head. "Isabelle Banner, you are going to run yourself ragged trying to save the world."

"Assisting at a medical clinic for women is hardly saving the world." I said. "But, I just have to get through two more years of school and I'll be able to start making a real dent." I inwardly debated whether or not I wanted to get up yet.

"You are making a real difference Izzy. You don't need a PhD for that." He said.

"Well, _Doctor _Stark, maybe next time you can come with me. We can make a dent in the world's problems together." I said, making my mind up and placing my feet on the floor. I set the tablet down and switched it to hologram mode.

"I don't think a degree in psychology really lends itself to your line of work." Drew replied. "I promise I'll try to make the next one more useful."

I splashed water on my face and dried it with the hem of my tank top. "Do you actually plan on having a career, or are you just going to live at Cornell for the rest of your life?" I asked, referencing our shared alma mater.

"I'm a 22 year-old with an advanced degree and heir to a substantial inheritance. I'm not really all that concerned with starting a career just yet." He said, averting his eyes as I removed my pajamas and slipped into a green sundress.

"Maybe you should be." I said, sitting down. Slowly, I started brushing out my long brown hair and arranging it into a braid. "Your parents could leave everything to Nolan or Sophie, then what would you do?"

"I really doubt that my parents would leave billions of dollars and one of the most powerful companies in the world to my 14 year-old sister."

"Your dad would if she asked nicely enough."

"My dad would buy her the moon if she asked him to. Thank goodness for my mom; I'm convinced she's the only reason Sophie isn't spoiled rotten."

"How is Sophie? I miss her." I said, tying off the end of my braid.

"Sophie is fine. Listen, Izzy, we're bringing everyone home."

Andrew's sudden shift in tone caught me off guard. "Andrew, what's wrong?"

"The ninja twins are picking you up in about seven hours; you'll be briefed on the jet." I rolled my eyes at his nickname for the Barton twins.

"Just tell me what's going on." I insisted, picking the tablet back up.

"Sorry, I can't. The coordinates for the rendezvous point will be sent to your tablet. I'll see you when you get home, okay?"

I sighed, knowing I wouldn't get anything else out of him. "Alright."

He smiled. "And Isabelle… be careful."

"I always am." I said before ending the video chat.

**Eight hours later, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean**

_Kyler  
><em>

"So we've been called back for a party?" Isabelle asked.

"A _gala_." I corrected "To bid adieu to our dear Director."

"I didn't even know he was retiring." Sasha said.

"I think that's the point. I suppose it makes sense if you think about it. If you wanted to destroy SHIELD, you'd wait for it to be at its weakest before enacting anything." Isabelle said. "A change in power presents the perfect opportunity for SHIELD's enemies to try to take it down."

"Well that does make a lot of sense strategically, but it's still annoying." Sasha said. "I was really looking forward to scuba diving."

"You know, now that I think about it, that explains why Andrew was being so cryptic about the whole thing." Isabelle added.

"And how is ?" I asked, emphasizing his newly acquired title.

I could see Isabelle trying to hide a blush. "Drew's fine. Although, he didn't mention his brother… have you heard from Nolan, Kyler?" Andrew and Isabelle had been hopelessly and obviously in love for years (although neither of them was brave enough to actually admit it to the other), and yet my relationship -or lack thereof-with Nolan Stark was one of Isabelle's favorite topics of conversation.

"I haven't, actually. Lover boy Liam is the one who called us in." I said pointedly looking in Sasha's direction.

Sasha pointed an accusing finger at Izzy. "Don't even try to tell me that he's into me, because he isn't."

Isabelle just sighed and shook her head in that older sisterly way that she had. "One day you two are going to have to swallow your pride and admit that I was right this whole time. It just might be the most satisfying day of my life."

"Well, second most satisfying, after the day you finally let Stark screw you senseless like you've wanted to for the past four years." Sasha's grey-blue eyes glinted mischievously.

"Sasha Renée!" I scolded, feigning indignation. Sasha just laughed, while Isabelle's tanned skin grew more scarlet by the moment.

"Why don't we put in a movie?" She asked, finally recovering herself, and hoping to shift the focus of the conversation.

We settled into the comfy seats of the private Stark Industries jet and dimmed the lights as we discussed our options.

Although the jet was faster than a commercial flight, it was still several hours before we landed at LaGuardia and got onto the helicopter that would take us home.

The evening sun glinted off the buildings of New York as we rose higher into the air. The Tower, as we called it, had been offered up by Tony Stark as a sort of home base for the Avengers when Nick Fury had suggested that everyone have a place to reconvene. It worked out well, especially once everyone started having kids. They say it takes a village, but in our case it took a tower full of superheroes.

Finally I could see it, standing sentry over the surrounding buildings. As we flew closer I could make out my parents and Dr. Banner standing on the roof near the landing pad. Subconsciously, I smoothed the back of my hair down to cover the new tattoo on the back of my neck, before reveling in the idea of a nice hot shower before dinner. I couldn't deny it was nice to be home.

_Sophie_

I was about to leave my room and head down to the kitchen when I heard the helicopter. "Jarvis, is that our helicopter?"

"Yes, Miss Stark. Estimated time of arrival is two minutes." The AI system replied.

I raced down the hall and into the elevator, punching the button for the common area. As soon as the doors slid open I was running into the kitchen where my mom and two older brothers were already working on dinner.

"They're here! Can I go up to the landing pad?" I asked my mom with pleading eyes.

"They just got back from half way around the world, Sophie. Let's give the girls some time to breathe. They'll come down when they're ready." She handed me a knife. "Why don't you help me out with these vegetables while we wait?"

"Okay." I said, chopping up some carrots. I should've asked Dad. He was completely susceptible to my pleading eyes. But, Dad was in the lab and Mom was not so easily persuaded, so I stood in front of the cutting board and carried on with the rhythmic sound of cutting up the vegetables in front of me.

"Need any help?" Liam and his younger sister, Ella, where standing in the doorway awaiting instruction from the woman who made our home function.

"Of course. Ella, why don't you help Sophie? Liam and Andrew can go set the table." She said, taking over for Andrew so he could help Liam.

Ella and I started talking about a movie she wanted to see while the boys shuttled plates and silverware between the kitchen and the table. Over the sounds of cooking and the dishes being stacked and moved, I heard the elevator doors sliding open in the living room. I had assumed it was my dad, but when I looked up Isabelle was standing in the doorway. She looked pretty with her hair down and a yellow sundress accentuating her tanned skin.

"Shit!" Andrew swore, nearly dropping the glass he was holding.

"Izzy!" I squealed, throwing down my knife and running towards the girl who was practically my sister.

"There's my Soph!" She said, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. "Movie night in my room at eight, ok?" She whispered in my ear before releasing me from our hug.

"Isabelle, it's wonderful to have you home." My mom said, taking her turn hugging Izzy. "How was India?"

"India was fantastic, as usual." She replied, now wrapping her arms around Ella and Liam.

"Well, I can't wait to hear all about it." Andrew had set down the glass he'd been holding and was leaning against the counter.

Kyler would have made a snide remark, Sasha would have hit him, and Ella would have agreed to tell him everything, but Isabelle just smiled and said "What? You wake me up at 6 am and drag me back home from halfway across the planet and I don't even get a hug?"

As if my brother would pass up an opportunity to be in close contact with Isabelle. Sure enough he pushed off the counter and walked over to where she was standing in the middle of the kitchen. "It was 6:30, and of course you get a hug."

Everyone else had gone back to their chores, but I watched out of the corner of my eye as he pulled Izzy into the circle of his arms, tucking her head under his chin. I smiled to myself at how perfectly they fit together. Isabelle had always been like an older sister to me, but if things turned out the way I thought they would, Isabelle would be my sister for real one day.

_Sasha_

Okay, I was hiding. But to be fair, so was Kyler. After stepping off the helicopter, I had greeted my parents then gone straight to my room with my sister close behind me. "I'm going to unpack." She'd said. "Come get me when you're out of the shower." Then she ducked into her room while I continued down the hallway. After unceremoniously dumping my suitcase on the bed, I grabbed a change of clothes and went to monopolize the bathroom between my room and my sister's.

The hot water helped clear my head and soothe my muscles, and when I stepped out of the shower I felt refreshed. After slipping into the jeans and tank top I had brought, I poked my head into Kyler's room, where she was sorting her laundry. "Bathroom's all yours."

"Thanks." She said, tossing one last garment into the darks pile and getting up. "Are you heading down now?"

"No, I want to unpack. We can go down together after you shower." We both knew that I really meant that I didn't feel like facing everyone without her, but she didn't say anything about it and I certainly wasn't going to. Long conversations had always been a rarity between us. We could say anything we wanted in eight different languages, but most of the time all we needed was a glance, a blink, a change in posture to tell us what the other was thinking. It's what made us such a good team, and such evenly matched opponents.

Kyler grabbed her things and headed for the shower while I returned to my room. It took me all of five minutes to unpack (a by-product of frequent travel), so I flopped down on my soft, black comforter and pulled my favorite knife out. I had just finished polishing the blade for the third time when Kyler walked in. "Не кажется ли вам это достаточно чисто?" She asked. (Don't you think it's clean enough?)

"Você sabe como me sinto sobre minhas facas." I said. (You know how I feel about my knives.) "It should be so clear..."

"..That the last thing your opponent sees is their own reflection." She finished with a smile. "You ready to go?"

I folded up the switchblade and rolled off my bed. "Let the interrogation begin."

"Don't be so dramatic. It's not that bad." Kyler said.

"Oh, please." I punched the down button on the elevator. "It's not that bad for you because every time we do this Nolan is there distracting you with his sexy hair and chiseled jaw line."

"No, it's not that bad for me because I actually try to answer their questions. 'The weather was beautiful. The food was delicious. The landmarks were stunning.' It's all simple diplomacy."

We stepped onto the elevator and Kyler pushed the button for the common area. "So what I'm hearing is that you think Nolan's hair is sexy and that you find his jaw line attractive."

"I didn't say that."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Refused denial is the same as admittance."

"Keep this up and you're gonna find out just how clean my knife is." The elevator doors slid open and she stalked away.

The common area was a large, open area with floor to ceiling windows looking out over the city. The different areas of the space were separated by different levels, a living area on the left was sunk into the floor, and the huge dining table on the right was raised above the kitchen next to it. I could see Pepper behind the breakfast bar, pulling serving utensils from a drawer. She smiled as she noticed Kyler walking towards her.

I made a beeline for the table where everyone else was already sitting down, most of them engaged in various animated conversations. With one last deep breath I sat down and prepared myself for the inevitable.

We had all just settled down when Pepper stood up at the head of the table. "First of all, I just want to say how wonderful it is to have everyone in the same place." She said, giving a pointed look to her sons and Izzy, who where all away at school for most of the year. "I don't think you realize how much I miss having you all home. But, I know that every time one of you leaves this home, it's with the intention of bettering yourselves, and I'm very proud of all of you for that. With that said," she smiled, "I'm very glad to have you all home. Hopefully you'll stay a little longer this time."

"Here, here." Said Izzy's dad, raising his water glass in the air. Everyone around the table echoed the sentiment before digging into their dinner and delving into conversations.

"So, tell us about Japan." Aunt Sharon said, turning her head towards me and Kyler. _Here we go…_

* * *

><p><em>AN:So, I hope you guys enjoyed this __first chapter! I really want this story to be interactive for you guys, so if you go to tlosad . tumblr . com (there's a link to it in my bio too) you'll find a Q&A Blog dedicated to this story and its characters. You can submit questions to the character Q&A and see previews and asset profiles. Please check it out, and if you have time I would love a review._

_Update: I got a request for some clarification, so here it is! The Stark kids: Andrew (22), Nolan (19), and Sophie (14). The Barton kids: Kyler and Sasha (18). The Rogers kids: Liam(17), and Ella (15). __Isabelle Banner (21). _


	2. The Gala

_Nolan_

After dinner I decided that I could use some time in the gym, because frankly I was a little bit wound up. I had been next to Kyler for all of dinner, listening to her tell everyone about her two week stay in Japan while she did this annoying thing where she tries to see how many pieces of chopped carrot she can sneak onto my plate before I notice (23, in case you were wondering). And all the while she just kept flipping her hair and wafting the smell of her pomegranate shampoo in my direction as if didn't already want to run my fingers through it. So, headed to the gym in hopes of taking my tension out on a punching bag.

But of course, nothing in my life is that simple. On my way to the gym I heard music coming through the open door of the dance studio. As toddlers Sasha and Kyler had been enrolled in dance classes as part of one final, desperate attempt at normalcy. Sasha had begged to quit after four lessons, but Kyler stuck with it. After an unfortunate accident involving one of my mother's favorite vases, my dad had decided that she should have a designated place for her artistic pursuits, ergo a dance studio in the basement.

I should have just gotten back into the elevator, or just ignored it and walked past, but that would have been way too easy. No, instead I decided to go walking in as if I expected to find someone else in there.

Her short curls were tied back in a red scarf and she was wearing her ballet shoes, the hard kind that she likes to threaten to hit me with. In her hand was a tambourine. I watched in awe as she kicked it with the toe of her shoe, behind her back, over her head, and in front of her face as she hopped and spun her way across the room with the strangest expression. She looked… happy; really, truly happy and at peace. She finished on the ground with the tambourine over her head and her other arm stretched out towards me, almost as if she were inviting me to join in, not that I really noticed though because her black rehearsal tutu left the vast majority of her powerful legs exposed.

"What, no smart remark?" She asked, getting up off the floor.

"No, I think I got a piece of carrot stuck between my teeth." I said.

"I'm glad to hear you're eating them." She took a sip from her water bottle then slipped off her tutu.

"Yeah, I had an extra helping tonight. Its weird though, because I don't seem to remember putting it on my plate."

She shrugged under the lace sleeves of her leotard. "Well, carrots are good for the eyes and the brain." Then she bent over to untie her shoes, proving that my eyesight was just fine, but my brain might need some help. _Don't look at her butt. Don't look at her butt. Don't look at – aaaaand I totally looked. Dammit._

"So did you need something or do you just have a secret fondness for the fine arts that I didn't know about?" She asked.

"Oh, ummm." _Fuck. _"I was actually looking for a sparring partner."

A wicked grin spread across her face. _Oh crap. _"Well, I happen to be free. Meet me in the gym in five. We can work on your speed, or rather lack thereof."

Kill me. Actually, don't worry about it because I'm pretty sure that's what Kyler Barton will be doing in five minutes.

_Sophie_

I knocked gently on the door to Isabelle's room. "Password?" She teased.

"Umm. I brought ice-cream?"

"Enter." When I did I saw Isabelle perched on her big, four-poster bed, brushing her hair in long, even strokes. "Come sit." She said, patting the deep purple comforter and setting the brush aside.

Every time Izzy came home from a trip, we spent an evening catching up over ice-cream and a movie. She loved to tell me all of the exciting and interesting things that had happened to her in the far-away lands she loved so much, and she always listened intently as I told her what had been going on at home.

Tonight, the movie was _Pride and Prejudice _and the ice-cream flavor was fudge swirl.

"Izzy." I said, as the credits began to roll. "Do you love Andrew?"

"Of course I do, Soph. I love all of you guys."

I rolled my eyes. "But you're _in love_ with Drew, aren't you?"

"I don't know." She admitted. "Shouldn't you be getting to bed?"

I turned the tv off and stood up. "Yes, mom."

She gave me a warm hug. "Goodnight, Sophie."

"Goodnight."

**Fifteen hours later**

_Sasha_

It hadn't really occurred to me how accustomed we were to formal events until Sophie swept into my room toting a garment bag over her shoulder. Within half an hour Izzy was perched in front of our makeup desk having her hair wrangled into an intricate braided hairstyle by Ella, who was sporting hair curlers and a pale blue robe. Kyler stood in front of the sink in nothing but her underwear and a tank top with a curling iron in hand, arranging her hair to ensure that in covered her tattoo. Pop music circulated through the space and Sophie, who was supposed to be letting her fingernails dry, was instead dancing around my room in a button-up shirt that had clearly been filched from one of her brothers as it nearly reached her knees.

As Isabelle got up to change, Sophie and I made quick work of Ella's hair, removing the curlers and letting it fall in voluminous curls around her shoulders. I was nearly done with her makeup when Sophie handed me a tube of venetian red lipstick. "Trust me. It's just what she needs."

Just as I finished applying the last of Ella's makeup, Isabelle walked back into the room. A midnight blue sari draped elegantly over her curves and a column of silver bangles clattered together on her wrist. Her ears where adorned with simple, silver earrings that matched the exquisite embroidery of the garment.

"You do realize Andrew's brain is going to completely short-circuit when he sees you in this?" Sophie asked, grinning broadly.

"Don't be silly." Isabelle said, a deep blush spreading across her cheeks.

"Where did you get this?" Ella asked, marveling at the embroidery. "It's so detailed."

"Right before I left India, I went to visit Matrika, the woman who runs the clinic I volunteer at. She said she had been saving it as a gift for all of my help and that I should wear it…when I had a special occasion. Shouldn't you guys be getting dressed?"

Kyler glanced at me, raising an eyebrow. _She's still not a very good liar is she?_

Nonetheless, everyone else did need to get dressed. I followed Kyler into her room and helped her slip into a dark purple number that exposed most of her back and brought out the green in her eyes.

"Well, the good news is, Dad will be so busy freaking out about your dress, he won't even notice your new tattoo." I said as she laced me into a charcoal grey mermaid-style gown.

"Good." She said. "That means my plan will work."

"Would it really be that big of a deal if he did find out? I mean, it's not like it's your first tattoo." I said, subconsciously running a finger over the white delta tattoo on my inner arm, barely visible against my pale skin.

"Yeah, but the last time I got inked I had his permission, and my sobriety."

I smirked, remembering our birthday celebration during our layover in London. "You already wanted the tat, the alcohol just encouraged you to act on your desires."

"Somehow, I think all Dad's going to care about is the drunk tattoo part, not the meaning behind it. Alright, you're ready." She decided.

Back in my room, everyone else was finished getting ready. Sophie was twirling around the room in a floaty green dress with a tiered skirt, and Izzy was clasping a strand of pearls around Ella's neck. Between her elegant curls, red lipstick, and lacy black dress, she looked like a movie star straight from the 1940's. We were slipping on our heels and double-checking our teeth for lipstick stains when the guys arrived.

When I opened the door, I was met with a wall of tuxedo-clad chest. Even in my heels, I had to tilt my head up to look Liam in the face.

"Sasha. You look… amazing." He said, giving me one of his signature crooked grins. _No, don't smile at me like that. I'm trying to be annoyed with you, you giant man-puppy._

"How can you even tell from up there?"

"Sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over all that jealousy." He said, cupping a hand around his ear.

I wasn't going to let the fact that he was currently five inches taller than me bring me down, so I pulled out the sharpest weapon in my arsenal: his age. "Are you even old enough to go to this party? I'm pretty sure it's adults only."

He shook his head. "Low blow, Sash."

Nolan's head popped into the doorway. "Is this particularly important flirting, or can we get this show on the road?"

"Mademoiselle." He said, offering his arm. I had learned a long time ago that telling Liam I didn't need his chivalry was about as effective as stirring tar with a plastic fork, so I rolled my eyes and slipped my arm through his.

Ella rested her hand in the crook of his other elbow and we headed down the hallway towards the elevator. Kyler, Nolan, and Sophie were behind us, followed by Andrew (who looked a bit dumbstruck) and Izzy (who was blushing furiously.) Together we took the elevator to the garage, and settled into the waiting limousine.

_Ella_

The gala looked like something out of a movie. A wide balcony overlooked the ballroom, where elegantly dressed men and women milled about. Waiters wove in and out of the crowds carrying trays of food and champagne and live music drifted throughout the space, adding to the gentle hum of polite conversation. From my spot on the balcony I could see Isabelle speaking to a small group of SHIELD's higher-ups while Andrew stood beside her, listening intently. Sophie stood in the corner of the room, having an animated conversation with a pretty dark haired woman. They must have been talking about computers, because Sophie had that excited look on her face that she only gets when someone understands what she's saying about routers and encryption codes. Off to the side of the room, Liam looked a little uncomfortable sitting at a table with two agents who looked like they were arguing. I was searching for the others when a figure appeared next to me.

"A lovely affair, isn't it?" Asked the man. He was about my height, though at least a decade my senior, and very slim with dark hair and a strong English accent.

I nodded. "I don't believe we've met." I said, offering my hand.

He shook it gently. "Dr. Benedict Martin, SHIELD science and research division."

"Ella Rogers." I said.

"Oh, I know who you are Miss Rogers." It wasn't unusual to meet people who already knew my name. Everyone from Good Morning America to Elle magazine wanted an interview with the children of the world's most controversial super heroes. Tony's team of lawyers could only do so much to keep the press at bay, and our pictures could often be found on the covers of tabloid magazines accompanied by ridiculous headlines like: "Isabelle Banner's secret pregnancy" and "Sophie Stark dating grown men at just 14!" Obviously none of that was true, but it meant that our names were out there, like it or not.

"It's lovely to meet you." I said, putting on my brightest smile and hoping none of the ridiculous lipstick Sophie had insisted on was stuck to my teeth.

"Likewise." He said. "I hear you're quite the adventurer, running all over the city."

"Oh, no. I just like to take pictures of the buildings. Sometimes if I can stay somewhere for a long time I'll do a sketch, but it's not like I'm an explorer or anything."

"So you like art then?" He asked, sipping his champagne.

"I love it. Drawing, painting, photography, even music. It makes me feel whole, you know? What about you, any artistic pursuits?

He looked over the edge of the railing at the dance floor below, his eyes following a pale woman with platinum blonde hair. "I'm more a man of science. Although, I must say I have a profound respect for my counterparts in the field. The combat training alone seems exhaustive. But, I'm sure you would know more about that than me." He chuckled.

I laughed along lightly. "Hardly. My brother has top marks in combat, but it was never my forte. I've always thought my hands were meant for creating art, not bruises."

His eyes flicked back to the woman he had been watching before. She was slipping into a side hallway, probably in search of a restroom. "Well, it's been wonderful to meet you Miss Rogers, but I'm afraid I must excuse myself." He said with a nod.

"Nice to meet you too. Enjoy the party!" I said, and with that he walked away.

_Kyler_

"Does your daddy know about your new ink?" The words made the hairs on my arms stand up, not because of what was said, but because of who said them.

Resisting the instinct that told my hand to fly to the back of my neck, I turned around. "I'm a big girl, Nolan. I don't need his approval."

"So, then I wouldn't need his permission to dance with you either?" He asked, raising one eyebrow in that way that made me unsure whether I wanted to punch or kiss him.

"You'd need mine." I replied, snagging a flute of champagne from a passing waiter. I would have preferred strawberry vodka, but apparently we were trying to be classy.

"As if I could force you into it." He chuckled as he grabbed the champagne from my hand and replaced it with a glass of punch.

I pouted. "Party pooper."

"Delinquent." He countered, raising the honey-gold drink to his own lips.

"Hypocrite." I mumbled into my stupid, non-alcoholic punch.

"You're avoiding my question."

"You didn't ask me one." I replied, calculating my chances of sneaking more champagne before the night ended. The odds came out in the 'slim to none' range.

Nolan took a step closer to me, and focusing would have been so much easier if my nose hadn't been even with the subtle cologne wafting off his pulse point. "May I have this dance?" The words ghosted over my cheek before reaching my ear, erasing my earlier indecision. I definitely wanted to kiss him.

I nodded wordlessly, hoping beyond hope that he couldn't tell what I was thinking as he led me out onto the dance floor.

The song was a slow waltz, and as he pulled me to him I had a bizarre flashback to the two of us learning the dance in the living room of the Tower. It had been years ago on a random Saturday afternoon, when Ella had come downstairs to find her parents swaying their way around the coffee table in the living room. Steve had decided that she should learn and before long all of had been roped into the impromptu dance lesson. I mostly remember that day because my parents had joined in, showing off an entire skill set that I hadn't even realized they possessed. It had been their faces that caught my attention, as their feet dragged curves and lines over the carpet; they looked each other in the eye with a rare display of unwavering affection.

I smiled at the memory, moving my own feet in time with the music as Nolan and I breezed through the dance. I glanced around the vast room, desperate not to meet my partner's gaze and afraid of what might happen if I did. _Stop it_, I mentally reprimanded myself. _Is this what you want to be? Some weak, swooning, little schoolgirl? No, so knock it off._

He lowered his head to whisper in my ear. "You shouldn't be allowed out of the house looking this good, people are starting to stare." I had noticed, of course, the small gathering of senior agents rimming the dance floor.

"They're staring because they can't figure out where on earth I stashed a gun and two knives while wearing this." I replied pragmatically.

He spun me and I felt his eyes wander up and down my body, searching for the answer. He reeled me back into him and asked "Where _did_ you stash them?"

Despite the dizzying sensation of his hand on the bare skin of my back, I managed a sly smile. "Wouldn't you like to know."

He gave me one last spin as the song ended and I could've sworn he knew exactly what this proximity was doing to me because he just rested his forehead against mine and let his gold-brown eyes bear into my own pale green ones. I had to get out. Soon. I had to get out of there before I did something stupid.

As our small audience burst into a round of generous applause, I made a beeline for the nearest exit, bursting into the abandoned hallway just as Nolan's hand grabbed mine. "Kyler, what's wrong?" I wrenched my hand from his grasp and leaned against the wall, putting some space between us. Somewhere down the hall a light was on, casting shadows over half his face and making his messy, brown hair look especially appealing.

Suddenly, as if acting of its own accord, my hand reached out and snatched his tie, dragging him to me so fast that he just barely had enough time to catch himself on the wall behind me. I saw the shock register on his face for a brief moment before my lips met his.

With one hand still clinging to his tie and the other winding through his hair, I pulled him closer to me and let myself be stupid, just this once. The kiss was a long way from cautious. He left his hands where they were, trapping me between his body and the wall while I made impatient demands of his lips, demands which he was all too eager to meet. As his tongue skimmed my bottom lip I fought to silence a moan of pleasure, instead nipping playfully at his lip before granting him the access he had wordlessly requested. Liquid fire flooded my veins as he snaked an arm around my waist, pulling my hips against him, while his other hand tangled in my hair.

The need to breathe finally forced him away from me. "Must have been one hell of a dance." He said between ragged breaths and kisses along my neck.

"Oh, shut up." I smirked pulling him back to me.

* * *

><p><em>AN: If you'd like, you can go to ___tlosad . tumblr . com (there's a link to it in my bio too) _to visit the Q&A blog and see asset profiles, chapter previews, and have your questions answered. And if you have any thoughts to share, please leave a comment/review!  
><em>


	3. The Tail

_Liam  
><em>

It was nearly one in the morning when we got back home, and I've never been more relieved to fall into bed. I had had fun, and met some really cool agents, but there was also a lot of pressure. It was like I could feel the weight of everyone's expectations crushing me the second I said my name. It's not my parents' fault that they're SHIELD legends, but every now and then I found myself wondering what it would be like to have parents who were accountants or history teachers.

By the time I woke up the next morning it was almost seven. I took my time going through my workout in the gym, before taking a quick shower and heading to the main kitchen to start breakfast.

"Morning." Sasha said, walking into the kitchen and making a cup of coffee. She must have taken a shower after her morning run because I caught the light citrusy scent of her body wash when I walked past her to get a mixing bowl. Not that I know kind of body wash she uses, I'm just assuming that's what it was.

"Good morning to you too." I said, pulling a box of pancake mix from the pantry and debating whether or not I could fit the whole thing into one mixing bowl.

"I never said it was good." She said, perching herself on the counter next to the stove. "And you don't have to make that much, nobody over the age of 22 is home."

"What do you mean?" I asked pulling the milk and eggs from the fridge.

"Pepper left for a conference in Beijing at 03:00 hours, and SHIELD requested everyone else around 05:00 hours for some sort of international catastrophe. Even Uncle Bruce went in. Andrew and Izzy are in charge."

"Is that really necessary? I mean, Sophie, Ella, and I are the only legal minors. How much trouble can we get into?"

"I think they're mostly concerned about leaving an engineering prodigy, three lethal teenagers, and a hacking expert together in one building with no supervision. I don't think Ella is even part of the perceived problem." She paused to take a sip of her coffee. "You know, when I was your age we didn't have fancy pancake mixes. We made them from scratch and cooked them over a fire."

"You were my age two weeks ago Sasha, not two centuries." I said, trying to be irritated, but I caught the glint of mischief in her grey-blue eyes that said she was just trying to get under my skin. _Gosh, she has gorgeous eyes._ Yanking my attention back to the task at hand, I began sorting out the ingredients. At which point I realized I was going to need the measuring cup that was currently in the drawer beneath Sasha's butt.

I came to stand directly in front of her, just an arms length away. She quirked an eyebrow over her mug of coffee. "Did you need something?"

"Measuring cup." I said, glancing at the drawer behind her legs. When I looked back up I couldn't help but notice the way the counter had evened out our heights. Usually the nine inch difference between us put her face level with my sternum, but now all I had to do was take take a step forward, tilt my head down a little, and I could… _No you can't, she doesn't care for you like that._

She drained the contents of her mug. "Looks like you've got a problem."

"Can you please just move your legs for a second?"

I wondered if she could feel the way the air between us became electrically charged when she asked "And if I don't?"

"Then I'll move them for you." Had she gotten closer, or had I?

She leaned back on her hands, and I was equally disappointed and grateful that she had put a little more distance between us. "I kind of like the sound of that."

"Suit yourself." I said, immediately scooping her up and plopping her back down on the counter next to the sink as quickly as possible.

"That spot was comfy." She pouted.

_Oh gosh, don't think about how cute she is when she's pouting._ "Sorry." I shrugged and pulled out the measuring cup I had been looking for.

She refilled her mug before returning to her original spot, letting her feet swing over the floor as she watched me start mixing the pancake batter. Sasha is sort of difficult to explain. Despite her small size, she tends to have a very… commanding presence. It can be pretty intense sometimes.

Especially times like this when she's watching me like she's deciding the best way to tear me apart with her bare hands. "What?" I asked, after what felt like an hour. It had probably only been a few minutes.

"Nothing." She said shortly, still giving me that unnerving look.

I was about to press the issue when the elevator doors opened and Ella and Sophie walked in with Andrew and Nolan trailing behind them, bringing with them a flurry of conversation.

**Ten hours later**

_Nolan  
><em>

"So, are you gonna explain it to me?" I asked, hauling myself onto the balance beam.

"Explain what?" Kyler asked. I was currently having my butt kicked at a game called "sniper" which was basically Sasha and Kyler's version of dodge ball, involving two players, a gymnastics beam and a bb gun.

Despite our actions last night, we seemed to be back to square one, teasing flirting, constantly teetering on the edge of something more. I wasn't going to push it though. If Kyler regretted what had happened last night, then we could go right back to being whatever we had been before, and I wasn't going to try to turn it into something else. Which probably would have been a lot easier if I hadn't become so hopelessly addicted to her.

"The tattoo."

She pretended to think about it. "Alright, if you can avoid my next shot, I'll tell you why I got the tattoo."

I watched closely as she took aim, somersaulting down the beam as soon as she went for the trigger. "Ha! You didn't get me!" I cried victoriously.

"Congratulations. You're finally on the board." She said dryly, putting the gun away. I hopped off the beam and sat down on the couch in the corner. "You sore?" I asked, noticing the way she rubbed her shoulder.

"No." I narrowed my eyes at her. "Okay, I'm a little stiff." She admitted.

"Come here." I said and she obediently settled herself on the floor in front of me. "How did this happen?" I asked, kneading at a knot in her shoulder. It felt nice to be in close contact with her again, making her inhale sharply as I worked out the knots I had created in the taught muscles of her back.

"Some jerk had me pinned against a wall last night."

"You didn't seem to mind." I said, working my hands up toward her neck. She closed her eyes, humming her appreciation, though I wasn't sure if it was for the massage or the previous night's activities. "So," I ran my thumb over the little arrow, "what's the story? I know about the delta tattoo, that one makes sense. But, what's with the arrow?"

She rested her head against my knee. "It's about choices; A reminder to myself of the impact that a single decision can make."I kept massaging her shoulders, hoping she would give a more detailed explanation. "Do you know how my parents met?" She asked.

That was a little out of the blue. "Yeah, they were 'STRIKE team: Delta, SHIELD's finest team of assassins.'" I said. "Everyone knows that."

"That's true, but it's not how they met. My mom wasn't always… the way she is now. I won't waste your time with details, but she had gotten SHIELD's attention in a bad way. My dad was sent to kill her." She paused for a moment, letting me absorb that little tidbit. "He told me that to this day he doesn't know why he didn't shoot her. By all accounts he should have let that arrow fly- he had no reason to trust her. Can you imagine if he had though?" I tried to wrap my mind around all the ways the world would be different. In the end it came down to one startling fact: Kyler would have never been born. "That's why I got the arrow." She finished. "As a reminder that our actions have consequences."

I was about to respond whenElla appeared in the doorway. "There you are! We're going to the movies in twenty minutes if you guys want to come."

Kyler rose to her feet. "Sounds fun, Ells. I'll be up in a few."

Ella turned her head towards me. "Yeah, same here."

"Great!" she said, heading back towards back into the elevator. "I'll go tell the others."

After hitting the showers ("_Separately. _We're on a schedule."), Kyler and I took the elevator to the garage.

Kyler was already pulling on her favorite leather jacket when I joined the group.

"That one's impossible to park." Andrew was saying. Apparently they were trying to decide which car to take.

"This one." Sasha said, tossing a set of keys to Isabelle.

Izzy's brown eyes glanced down at the insignia on the key. "But it only seats five."

Kyler picked up her motorcycle helmet. "Sasha and I can ride our bikes. Who wants to come with?" Nobody. "Ella?" She tried. "Come on, live a little. It'll be fun." Kyler persisted, handing Ella a helmet too. She carefully pulled it on, tucking her hair up into it.

"I guess that settles it then." Andrew said, and the rest of us piled into the car, leading the way to the movie theater.

**Two and a half hours later**

_Kyler  
><em>

We where being followed. We were just a few miles from home when I noticed the car that had been behind us for several blocks. "Sasha, we've got a tail. Black SUV two cars behind us." I said, knowing she could hear me through the bluetooth in the helmets.

"Copy that. Threat level?" I could feel Ella's arm tightening around my waist as she and Sasha awaited my threat assessment.

"Probably just photographers." I said, trying not to scare Ella. "We should split from the car just in case though. I want to see who they're after."

"Got it. We'll go right on the next side street."

"Call Nolan." I ordered into the speaker. He picked up after the first ring. "We've got a tail." I said without preamble. "Sasha and I are splitting off. Are you armed?"

"All good here. And you guys?"

"If one of us has to fight, the other will get Ella out." I said. "There can't be more than six assailants, we should be fine."

"Alright, I'll tell Andrew so we can reroute. We'll meet you back home." He agreed. "And you better be in one piece when you get there."

"Or what?" I smirked. "You'll spank me?"

"Don't tempt me." He said firmly before hanging up.

Sasha and I split off at the next side street as planned, and continued zig-zagging our way back to the Tower through alleys and side streets. Every time I thought we had managed to lose our tail, that black sedan would turn a corner and appear behind us again. They weren't even trying to be subtle anymore.

The fact that they had followed us and not the car was either good, or really bad. On the one hand, it meant I was probably right about it being paparazzi looking for easier targets than a car with tinted bulletproof glass. On the other hand, it meant that if I was wrong, there was going to be a fight before we made it home.

"You alright back there?" I asked Ella as we turned back onto a busier should buy us a little time to distance ourselves from them.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." She said.

"That's probably motion sickness." I replied. "Take a couple deep breaths. Trust me, you do not want to toss your cookies with that helmet on."

"Turn left up here." Sasha said. I did as she instructed, turning left, then right, then right again.

"It's a dead end." I said.

My sister swore under her breath as we both hit the brakes, coming to a stop at the end of the alley. Naturally, it was at that moment that the SUV rounded the corner, boxing us in.

"Guys," Ella whimpered. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

I took a mental inventory of the situation as the doors of the vehicle opened. "Ella, keep your helmet on, and follow me." I said as I took my helmet off, preparing for the fight ahead. Sasha already had her Glock drawn and aimed at the large men that were stepping out of the vehicle. I pulled my own gun from inside my jacket, covering Ella as I led her behind a dumpster. "Wait here." I ordered, not waiting for her to acknowledge the instruction before turning back towards our attackers. Six beefy guys with handguns had emerged from the car. Okay, so they weren't paparazzi.

The one in front leveled his weapon at my face. "Come with us and nobody gets hurt." He said.

"The gun pointed at my face doesn't really scream 'non-violent' to me." I said, aiming my own weapon at the space between his eyes.

"I don't wanna hurt you, sweetheart." That did it.

Ella yelped when the gun went off, but Sasha had been ready. As I launched myself at one of the other gunmen, she sprang forward as well, disarming one and landing on another. After that I was too caught up with the three men attacking me to keep up on her progress.

The one that I had shot was slowly crawling back to the vehicle, gasping in pain as his shattered kneecap dragged along the rough concrete. I ducked as one of my assailants kicked out at me, swiping his other leg out from under him. One of the others was on me immediately, but I blocked his hit and landed a hard kick in his chest. We were faring pretty well, until I felt a sharp prick in the side of my neck.

"Vous devez partir! Rentrer à la maison maintenant!" I called out, hoping none of our attackers spoke French. (You need to leave! Go back home now!)

"Je ne vais pas laisser sans vous!" Sasha said, throwing another punch. Of course she would refuse to leave without me. The edges of my vision were already blurring. Whatever drug they'd hit me with was working fast. If Sasha had any chance of getting out, she needed to do it now.

"Watashitachi wa ōku no jikan o motteinai!" I insisted, switching to Japanese so Ella wouldn't understand that time was running out. I was becoming less stable on my feet, slow and inaccurate in my movements. I looked over to her, telling her that she needed to leave in that language that only the two of us knew.

Finally, she understood. With one swift kick to her opponent's trachea she got back on her bike and pulled it up next to the dumpster. Ella was barely on the seat when she shot off, steering with one hand and preparing to shoot with the other.

The last thing I saw as a rough hand wrapped around my neck was my sister's red hair trailing behind her as the two of them rounded the corner and sped out of sight.

_Sasha_

Liam and Nolan were waiting in the garage for us. Ella had barely been able to make the call to her brother, telling him where to meet us, and by the time we pulled in she was visibly shaking and on the verge of tears. They rushed up to us before I even killed the engine, Liam taking off his sister's helmet and helping her off the bike, and Nolan looking lost for words. "Take her to Andrew, make sure she's not going into shock. Then get Sophie and meet us in the office." I said to Liam.

"What happened back there?" Nolan asked, following me into the elevator.

"It was six on two. They drugged her and she told me to get Ella out." I said, slamming the button for the floor that housed the private labs. "They would have taken the three of us if she hadn't stayed behind."

"Do you have any idea who's behind this?" He asked. The elevator doors opened and we both stepped out, walking briskly to the room at the end of the hall.

"Nope, but we're going to find out." I said as we reached our destination. The office had been our classroom once upon a time, and it was exactly what we needed. "Jarvis, secure the room and get my mother on the line." I said, switching on the holo-table and firing up the monitors against the far wall. Almost instantly the room was plunged into darkness as the blinds slapped shut and the door locked from the inside.

Light washed over us as my mother's figure appeared over the holo-table. "Mom, are you with Dad?" I asked, cutting off her greeting.

"Yes." She said calmly. "Why?"

"Where are you guys?"

"You know I can't tell you tha-" She started, but I cut her off again.

"Kyler's just been drugged and kidnapped. Where are you guys?" I repeated firmly.

She knew I was really asking how long it was going to take them to get back. She tucked her hair being her ear. "We're grounded. I'm assuming you haven't seen the news?" I shook my head. "We'll be home as soon as possible, I promise. In the meantime, you need to do what you can. Do you understand?" I nodded. "Alright." And with that she was gone.

Sometimes I wondered if when she looked at me, my mother still saw the scared little three year-old that would run into her room after every nightmare. But now I was living one, and that girl was gone - she had learned that Mommy has nightmares too. She had become me, and I had learned how to face my nightmares.

As soon as the image disappeared, the door unlocked and Liam came bursting in with Isabelle and Sophie right behind him. "You need to see this." Isabelle said, handing me her tablet. The screen was flipping between multiple newscasts, all of which read 'breaking news' somewhere on the screen.

"… has been deemed an act of international cyber-terrorism. Sadly, the hack has already resulted in three fatal plane crashes, and airlines are scrambling for a solution before more lives are lost." I flipped the tablet off.

"I don't think there's a connection, but stay up to date just in case." I turned to Liam. "Ella?"

"Andrew thinks she'll be okay once she gets the adrenaline out of her system." He didn't mention the wet spot on his shirt from where his sister had been crying on his shoulder.

"Okay, Sophie I need you on every traffic camera within ten blocks of here." I said, pointing to the map on the holo-table. She nodded, brushing her ginger hair behind her ears and settling in front of the screens across the room. "Nolan, you need to get whatever you can from the audio and video feeds in our helmets. Liam, stay here and help them." I turned to Isabelle. "Grab a jacket and a field kit. You're coming with me."

"Where are we going?"

"To get answers." We needed to get whatever evidence we could from the scene of the attack before it was compromised.

The alley was eerily quiet for New York. "Here." I said, pulling a flashlight from the glove compartment. I handed it to Izzy before pulling my own from my jacket pocket. The two lights swept slowly over the shadowy area, sliding over the walls, the dumpster, and the mess on the ground. I could hear Isabelle's sharp intake of breath when her light found the thick smear of blood on the concrete.

"It's not hers." I assured her. Nodding, she got to work, slipping on latex gloves and opening up the field kit she had brought while I did my best to light up her current workspace. They hadn't left much behind other than a decent sized blood sample,a couple of bullets and casings, and Kyler's bike and helmet.

"It's a good start." Izzy said, squeezing my shoulder. She got back into the car as I mounted Kyler's bike. "Stick close to the car okay?" I wasn't sure if it was so I could watch her back or so she could watch mine. Maybe it was a little bit of both.

* * *

><p><em>Okay, if you haven't visited the Q&amp;A blog yet, you're missing out! Please head over to <em>__tlosad . tumblr . com (there's a link to it in my bio too) and ask_ some questions and check out chapter previews and Asset Profiles. And of course, if you've got a minute to review it would make my day!_


	4. The Fallout

_Andrew  
><em>

It was well after nightfall when Sasha and Isabelle got home. "Ella's asleep. The adrenaline rush knocked her right out. Everyone else is in the office."

Sasha nodded. "Thanks. You get that to the lab." She said to Isabelle before taking off down the hall.

"So where are we?" I asked as the two of us walked into the lab.

"What do you mean?"

"This whole situation. What do we do? Shouldn't we file a missing person's report or something?" I asked. She wouldn't meet my gaze as she unpacked the field kit. "Isabelle." I tried. Finally, her brown eyes met mine.

"We can't." She said, although her face betrayed her guilt on the matter. "There's just been an act of international terrorism, the NYPD is going to put this on the back burner. Besides, between Sophie, Sasha, and I there will have been at least ten illegal acts committed in this building before midnight. We really don't need the police hanging around for that."

"Are you sure about this?" I asked.

She took a deep breath, a sure sign that she was stressed. "Honestly? No, but I trust Sasha to do everything she can to get Kyler back. Until someone who's equipped to deal with this situation gets home, I'm going to trust that she knows the best course of action."

"Then I will too. How can I help?" I asked.

"Well, you can take these to your brother for starters. And maybe stay in the office? I don't want you to be here while I'm doing illegal things." She gave me a sad smile and handed me the canisters from her kit, each one making a metallic jangling sound as they transferred hands.

"If you need anything, I'll be right down the hall." I said.

As I walked out the door, she picked up her phone. "Hi, Daddy. Yes I'm okay. I need your help with something."

*Kyler*

"What is this?" I didn't know who was speaking, but he sounded angry. Keeping my eyes closed, I tried to assess the situation. Whatever I had been drugged with was wearing off, but I could feel bindings on my hands and feet and I knew I wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight until it wore off completely.

"We got the girl, just like you asked." Said another voice on my left. "She put up one hell of a fight too. Shot Raymer in the knee before we were able to drug her. You said this was gonna be an easy mission with minimal resistance."

"I did." Said the first voice coldly. He had a strong English accent, probably from a middle class home near London. "And It would have been if you imbeciles had gotten the right girl. This one's of no use."

A door opened behind me. "Now, now Dr. Ashby. I'm sure we can find some use for her." The voice was a woman's this time, her accent suggesting that she was Scandinavian. "What happened?"

The second man, the american one, spoke again. "It was her, a redhead, and some other girl who was a couple inches taller than them. She never took her helmet off so I didn't get a good look at her face. This one and the redhead were both armed and trained. After we hit her with the drugs she started yelling at the other in French I think, then some other language I didn't recognize. Maybe Chinese? Anyway, Red drove off with the tall one and Blondie here hit the ground not long after." I focused on keeping my breath steady and pretending to be passed out, but my mind was suddenly buzzing. _Sasha and Ella must have gotten away, which means I just have to hold out until someone comes for me._

"I told you to get the girl with the blonde curls. She said she had almost no training." Dr. Ashby said. "It was probably the one with the helmet on, you moron." _They were after Ella._

"You said to get the blonde, and I did. Not my fault you didn't factor in more than one blonde girl." Replied the second man.

"Without the Rogers girl, all of our research will have been for nothing!" Shouted the doctor.

"Calm down, Ashby. I'm sure this one will prove herself useful. Take her to the sunroom and wake her up." Ordered the woman. "The good doctor and I have some other matters to attend to before Monsieur Lagarde arrives. Oh, and I suggest you come up with a way to explain yourself before he does. Lagarde pays you and your team good money for good work, but this was less than satisfactory." I heard heels clicking on the floor as she walked away.

_Liam  
><em>

It was well past midnight, and we had made little progress in our search for answers. In fact, it seemed like every time someone came up with a new piece of information we acquired one answer and five new questions. Sophie had managed to get a look at the vehicle's plates, but they weren't registered in any DMV records, and Nolan hadn't been able to glean much from the helmets. The biggest breakthrough of the night had taken place when Izzy came scurrying in from the lab down the hall.

"I have hacked six databases with increasing illegality and finally found a match to the blood sample from the scene. It belongs to one Jonas Raymer. He's a known mercenary."

"Soph, can you figure out who the last person to hire Raymer was?" I asked. Sophie nodded, turning back to the computers in front of her.

"Where is everyone?" Izzy asked, toying with the end of her long, dark braid. Save for me and Sophie, the office was deserted.

"Nolan took the bullets and casings down to the workshop, Andrew is checking on Ella, and Sasha said she needed to 'do something useful.' I think she's getting frustrated."

She nodded. "You should go make sure she's okay. The last thing we need is for her to start making poor decisions out of anger."

"You're probably right. Make sure you and Sophie get to bed soon, okay?" She nodded, giving me a tiny smile. With that, I headed out the door.

I found Sasha in the range next to the armory, taking shot after shot at the targets lining the walls. When the magazine was empty, she pulled her knife from her belt, flipping it open an sending it hurdling towards the target so fast that I nearly missed it.

"Sasha? Are you okay?" I knew what her answer would be before she even opened her mouth. I had seen her with sprains and fractures and blood trickling down her face and every single time she just smiled up at me with a storm brewing in her silver-blue eyes and said "I'm fine." But not today.

"I should have taken the shot."

I eased the gun from her hand and she looked at it as if realizing for the first time that she had pulled it out. "You didn't have a clean shot. What if you had missed?"

"Did I miss?" she said indicating the neatly butchered targets.

I didn't know what to say. I knew she needed something from me, but I didn't know exactly what. I settled for putting a hand on her shoulder, and took it as a small victory that she didn't shrug it off. "Even if you had made that shot, what would you have done? You were outmanned, outgunned, and trying to protect Ella." I took a deep breath. "Thank you, by the way, for doing that. I didn't think it was possible to feel both guilty and grateful at the same time. You took care of my sister without any thought to your own personal safety, and I owe you for that. If you had made a different call, I would probably be standing where you are right now."

Her right hand absently went to trace the delta tattoo on her inner arm, the one that mirrored her sister's. "Between the two of them, Kyler had the best chance of coming out of this alive." Someone who didn't know her that well wouldn't have detected the slight change in tone on the word 'alive,' but I was someone who knew her very well. I could tell she was fighting to keep her breaths even beneath my hand.

"Sasha, tell me what you need."

She finally turned to face me and I realized that Sasha Barton, the indestructible girl, was broken.

"I need my sister."

She fell apart quietly, hot tears soaking into my shirt as she rested her forehead against my chest.

I could've said a lot of things in that moment. I could have told her how I felt, or that we would get Kyler back, or that everyone was doing everything they could, or that this wasn't her fault, but I finally knew what she needed. She needed someone to hold her together, just for a little while.

So I did.

_Andrew_

It was nearly two in the morning by the time I managed to coax Sophie out of the office, staying behind for a few minutes to put things back in order. As I passed the lab on my way to the elevator, I noticed that the computer was still on and in front of it was Isabelle's sleeping form. Her arms were resting on the table, cradling her head between them. She must have been intending to go to bed and gotten sidetracked because, like me, she wore sweatpants and an old t-shirt.

I didn't want to wake her, so I carefully lifted her into my arms and carried her back to her room, pulling the covers up to her chin after setting her on the bed. I was about to switch off the lamp and leave when her hand closed around my wrist.

"Will you stay? I don't want to be alone tonight." She mumbled sleepily. She looked so … fragile. I knew I couldn't deny her request, even if I had wanted to.

"Okay." I nodded and she wordlessly scooted over, making a spot for me on the bed. As I flicked the lamp off she tucked her head under my chin and I remembered how cuddly she was when she slept. Happy to oblige, I wrapped an arm around her waist feeling the familiar fabric of one of my t-shirts beneath my fingers. I smiled, pulling her closer and letting our legs tangle up beneath the sheets. She could steal every shirt I owned and I wouldn't mind one bit. How could I when she looked this beautiful in them? With that thought in mind and the sweet smell of her hair beneath my nose, I finally drifted off to sleep.

I awoke to Isabelle crying out. She was tangled in the sheets, her breathing shallow and uneven. The warm light of the lamp fell across her face as I flicked it on. "Isabelle!" I said. "Isabelle, wake up. It's just a dream."

Her dark brown eyes flew open as she gasped for air. "Andrew." She breathed, and I noticed the tear tracks glistening on her cheeks.

"Isabelle, what's wrong?" I asked, sitting up with my back against the headboard. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

She shook her head, indicating that she didn't want to talk about it at all, but nonetheless she said through fresh tears, "I couldn't move. I couldn't do anything. She was right there bleeding out in front of me and I was stuck."

"Isabelle." I said, gently brushing away the tears from her cheeks. Before I even realized what had happened she had crawled into my lap and tucked her head under my chin. "It wasn't real." I assured her, wrapping her up in my arms. "Nightmares are just the subconscious surfacing of our fears. You're worried about Kyler, and scared that you aren't going to be able to help her."

Her breathing had evened out a bit. "I'm scared for her." She admitted. "I should have done something."

"What could you have done?"

"I don't know." She said, frustration growing. "Something, _anything_. People are messing with my family, Andrew. I should be able to stop them."

"We're going to figure this out, okay?"

She nodded, burying her face in my chest as I rubbed small circles on her back. "I love you."

The words were muffled, but I was sure I had heard her correctly. I pulled back, trying to look at her face, but she looked away and avoided my eyes. "Isabelle, please look at me."

She glanced up at me nervously. "I figured now was as good a time as any to admit it."

For a long moment I didn't know what to say. _Say you love her too, dumbass._ I knew that's what I should do, but it just didn't feel like enough. "I don't know how to say this without sounding like a total moron, but I am impossibly and unwaveringly in love with you, Isabelle. I'm sorry it took me so long to admit it."

She was about to respond when a dinging noise came from her bedside table. "It's Sasha. She wants everyone in the office." She said, reading the message off the phone. I nodded, and the two of us rolled out of bed. A glance at the clock told me it was just past 05:30. _Great._

It wasn't all horrible, though. Isabelle decided to tuck herself under my arm on our way there.

*Sasha*

"Where are we?" I asked as Ella walked into the office carrying a tray of fresh muffins.

"I just got off the phone with my dad," Nolan started "and he says that until yesterday's hack gets figured out, all flights are grounded. Most countries are threatening to shoot anything with a motor out of their airspace. International travel of any kind is at a near standstill."

"So for now, we're on our own." I said, picking up a muffin and peeling away the paper.

"What about SHIELD?" Izzy asked, still tucked under Andrew's arm. I had only gotten about an hour and a half of sleep, but I wasn't too tired to notice the clear shift in their relationship. "Surely we can get help from them, or at least Uncle Phil or Maria."

Sophie shook her head. "Uncle Phil left for a vacation in Australia as soon as the gala ended, and Maria's one of the new directors. Theres no way she'll be free to help us until this airline thing blows over. Our parents may work for SHIELD, but Kyler is technically a civilian, which means this would fall under the NYPD's jurisdiction."

I took a deep breath, trying to clear the mess in my head. "Nolan, what did you find out about the bullets?"

"About as much as I expected to." He said. "One of them was definitely fired from Kyler's Heckler & Koch, but without a control bullet from the assailants' guns, all I can really tell you about the other two is their caliber."

"Alright, any luck with Raymer?" I asked, turning to Sophie.

She pulled up a few files on the holotable. "He's got a juvie record longer than your arm, but no arrests as an adult." She said, flicking through his rap sheet.

"He was probably working as a merc by the time he became a legal adult." Andrew reasoned.

His sister nodded in agreement. "He's pretty off-grid, no house or apartment in his name, no credit cards. But, he does have a cell phone, which he uses to call Unification International several times a month." She said, pulling up a different website. The top of the screen flipped through pictures of volunteers handing out food and water to disaster victims around the world.

"I've never heard of that organization before." Izzy said.

"The website says that they're based out of France, but they have facilities all over the world."

"See if they have any facilities in New York." I said. "Mr. Raymer doesn't really seem like the humanitarian type." Sophie gave a small salute before turning back to her screens.

"I think I might have something." Ella said sheepishly, pulling out her sketchbook and flipping through to the page she wanted. "I don't know if it helps, but I remembered some of the faces of the men who attacked us."

"This is really good." Nolan said, taking the sketchbook and looking at the three sketches she had done. "If we can figure out who they are, we might have better luck tracking down their employer. Izzy, can I borrow the lab? I'll need to do a software download for facial recognition."

"Oh goody, more illegal things." She said without humor. "Go ahead."

Nolan thanked her before taking off down the hall with the sketchbook in hand.

"I know a few exercises that might help you remember more." Andrew offered. "If you're up to trying them, it could help." Ella nodded and followed him out of the room.

"Izzy, stay here and help Sophie."

"What about us?" Liam asked following me out of the room.

"You and I are going to go to the armory and create an extraction plan." I said, carefully avoiding the word "we" in reference to the two of us.

He nodded, following me into the elevator and reaching for the button that would take us to the armory in the second sub-level.

"Not that armory." I said, and I punched the button for the floor above us instead.

_Kyler  
><em>

The "sunroom" was not nearly as pleasant as it initially sounded. When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was an expanse of gray concrete, interrupted by a metal door that reminded me of the ones in the lab of the tower. The second thing I noticed was the strange lighting that illuminated the rubber floors and the straps that held me to the chair I had been dumped in. That had been several hours ago, and now as the sun rose I realized that the strangely patterned ceiling was actually a really dingy skylight about 12 feet over my head. I estimated that it was around six in the morning when the door slid open and a pale woman with platinum blonde hair walked in.

"Good morning Ms. Barton. You and I have much to discuss."

* * *

><p><em>AN: Sorry this one took so long, but it's finals time so I'm a little busy. As usual the link to the Q&A blog ison my profile. Please check it out, and maybe leave a question or two. And of course, if you have a moment, I would love a review. _


	5. The Plan

_A/N: Sorry this took so long, I've been totally uninspired this past month and struggling to keep focused on this. Anyway, please be careful reading this chapter as Kyler's POV is very torture-centric. If this is a trigger for you, please skip it! If you need to skip that section, but want to know what happens leave a comment or send me a message and I'd be happy to give you a synopsis._

_Sophie_  
>Something was wrong. Other than the whole kidnapping thing, I mean. Something was off. I was missing something important, some connection or relationship. Facial recognition software had been able to identify more of the of the kidnappers, but none of them had any more information on them than Raymer.<p>

And then there was Unification International. Something about it was raising a red flag, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was. I was still puzzling over it when Andrew set a sandwich in front of me.

"What's eating you, Ginger Snap?" He asked. "You look like you've hit a wall."

Because we were so far apart in age, Andrew and I didn't really have a typical sibling relationship, but I trusted him with a lot and knew he would listen without judging me. Maybe it was his psychology training, or maybe it was just the way Andrew was, but he gave good advice. I set my glasses down on the desk and rubbed my tired eyes. "It's this company." I admitted. "It just doesn't sit right with me."

"If your instincts are telling you that something is up, something probably is." He said, pulling up a chair next to me. "Try to organize your thoughts. What's the first red flag?"

"Raymer, obviously. Why is a mercenary calling an international charity several times a month?"

He nodded. "You're right, that does't make sense. What else?"

"If the company is so huge and international, why hasn't anyone heard of it before?"

"So you're saying that Unification International, might not be legit?" He frowned.

"It makes sense. Look at this website." I said, pulling it up on the center screen. "There's a donation tab, history of the organization, important members and contributors, and even a photo gallery. The more I look into it though, the more I realize is missing. There are no volunteer applications, no mailing address, not even email addresses for the employees."

"And no phone number listed?" Andrew asked. I shook my head. "So how did Raymer get their number?"

"Probably from one of these guys." I said, switching to the tab showing important members of the organization.

We were scrolling through the page when Ella popped her head into the office. "I was won- what's that?" She asked, pointing at the screen.

"We're looking into Unification International." I said.

She walked into the office and stood directly in front of the screen we had been looking at, furrowing her eyebrows and she looked at the photo on the screen. It was of a slim, unremarkable man with dark hair, with the name Dr. Gregory Ashby typed out underneath. "I know him."

_Kyler_  
>I recognized the two men with her from the alley. The one she called Shaw was glaring at me as if I had strapped him to a chair in the middle of some mystery greenhouse instead of the other way around, while the other one came to stand behind me. It gave me that nice 'someone's watching' sensation that tends to raise the hair on the back of my neck, but I wasn't going to fall into their little intimidation trap. Even when the woman started circling me like a stalking lioness I kept my body language timid and unsure. My immediate instinct was to play the damsel in distress, to garner sympathy or compassion, so I settled into my role.<p>

"Where am I? Who are you?" I asked tossing my gaze between the three of them.

"Don't try to play games with me, Ms. Barton. Our head of human resources has a man in the infirmary who needs to have his kneecap reconstructed because of you. I know you're not as helpless as you want to seem." Something told me that 'human resources' meant something very different here than it usually did.

I shrugged, dropping the facade. "Worth a shot. Seriously though, where are we? This place could use some serious decorating. This whole fifty shades of grey color scheme is way boring."

"I am not in need of your decorating advice." She sighed, clearly growing bored. "I have some questions for you, and you will answer them."

I already knew the answer, but I still asked. "And if I don't?"

She came to stand in front of me, leaning in close. "Then we'll play a little game." The words turned my spine to ice. I could only think of a few "games" that required any combination of large armed men, rubber floors, a metal chair with arm and leg straps, and a soundproof door. I didn't want to play any of them.

"Well? What's so important that you had to kidnap me for it?" I asked impatiently.

"Your little friend. Ella, is it? You and your sister risked life and limb for her. Why?"

"While I'm inclined to act surprised, I really can't say that your lacking moral compass comes as much of a shock."

Three minutes later, I was really regretting the use of the word 'shock' as electricity skittered through my body.

"Now," she said "do you want to answer my question like a polite young lady?"

"She's our friend. I don't see why that's so hard for you to understand." I said, trying to regulate my breathing and calm my heart rate.

"It affects her, doesn't it? Her father's blood in her veins, it makes her stronger."

The accident. That's what this is about. When she was eleven, Ella was hit by a car and needed an emergency blood transfusion so her dad gave her one on site. Uncle Bruce thought it might have been the reason she survived her injuries, but there were no longterm effects.

"Look, if you're hoping to take over the world or something, Ella can't help you. Personally, I think the whole world domination thing is a bit overdone, but to each his own." The sentence was punctuated by another burst of electricity.

When my vision cleared, I noticed a man at the door. "I'm sorry to Interrupt Ms. Oryeck, but Mr. Lagarde is here." I recognized his voice from when I had first arrived, it was the one they had called Ashby. I took in the tall, dark-haired man. He was nothing exceptional as far as looks or strength, so clearly he was here for his intellect. His relationship with Oryeck was a bit harder to pin down. Clearly his role here was important, but he seemed almost subservient around Oryek. I didn't think I'd have much chance to ask him about it.

"See what you can get out of her while I'm gone." She said, sauntering from the room.

I braced myself for round two.

_Liam_  
>"There's no Benedict Martin in any of SHIELD's files." Sophie confirmed.<p>

Sasha and I had returned from the armory just moments before to find that Andrew, Ella, and Sophie were pursuing information on Gregory Ashby.

"So you met him at the gala. What did you two talk about? Did he say anything strange?" I asked.

She shook her head, causing her blonde waves to shake around her shoulders. "We just talked about art, he said it was admirable or something. I don't remember the details."

"Nothing struck you as odd?" Sasha pressed.

My sister thought about it for a moment before speaking again. "There was one thing." She said. "He said something about the field agents and combat. It seemed like a weird topic change."

"And what did you say to him?" I asked.

Ella shrugged. "I just told him the truth. I said I didn't really have experience with fighting, and then not long afterward he followed some woman out of the ballroom."

"Did you know the woman?"

Ella shook her head. "I didn't get a good look at her. All I know is she was blonde."

Sasha ran a hand through her hair, mussing up the deep red tresses. "So some doctor who isn't a SHIELD agent, shows up at the director's gala, finds out how much combat experience you have, leaves with some mystery woman, and then… what, sends a six person grab team after you?"

I nodded. "If I were going to kidnap someone, I'd want to know exactly what I'm up against beforehand, wouldn't you?"

"You think they were after me?" Ella asked.

"Yeah, but I think they realized they'd bit off more than they could chew when the twins pulled their guns. They tranquilize Kyler to minimize the opposition, but by that point you and Sasha have already gotten away so they kidnap her to…" I realized there weren't very many ways that sentence could end. What were they doing to her right at that moment? Imprisoning her? Torturing her? Killing her?

I shook my head to clear out that thought. "So this mysterious doctor works for the fake company that hired a team of mercs to kidnap Kyler?"

Sasha folded er arms over her chest as she leaned against the holotable. "No, he works for the fake company that hired a team of mercs to kidnap Ella, and brought back Kyler instead.

"What else does the website say?" Andrew asked. "Does it mention any financiers, other staff members maybe?"

Sophie scrolled down the page. "We've got the co-founders, Elva Oryek and Pierre Lagarde."

"Lagarde's a French billionaire." Andrew said. "He must be the money."

"That makes Oryek the brains." Sasha added.

"Then there's a list of other employees and major contributors." Sophie said. "No pictures, just names." She returned to her screens, typing a mile a minute. "I'll see what I can figure out about the three of them."

Sasha nodded. "Call when you find something."

"Good eye Soph." I added, following her from the room. She didn't say anything as we walked down the hall and boarded the elevator, getting off on the next floor. By the time she was punching in the code for the armory door the silence had gotten deafening. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"On what planet would I be okay?" She asked. "My sister's been kidnapped, our parents are stuck overseas, and there's a fourteen year-old downstairs committing a felony on my orders. What's alright about that?"

"Look, nobody would have asked this of you if the situation were different." I said. "But if any of us can do this, it's you."

"No, I can't." She shook her head. "I can't do this Liam. We're on our own, in the dark, and down a man. I can't be them Liam, I'm not ready." She said, motioning to the items that lined the wall. There were extra bows, spare parts for whichever suit was in commission, and a menagerie of other weapons lining the walls. Her eyes rested on a pair of widow's bites that glowed a vibrant amber color. "They're heroes. And look how far we've gotten without them."

"You can't seriously blame yourself for the hack, Sash. They're doing everything they can to get home, but until then you have to believe that you're the best person to handle this situation."

"If that were true we wouldn't be in this situation." She said.

"You're right, we wouldn't be in this situation. We'd be looking for Ella and planning two funerals." I sighed, resting my hands on her shoulders. "I know the call wasn't easy to make, but I do feel that it was right."

"Well that makes one of us." She said. Then suddenly her face was buried in my chest and her arms were wrapped tightly around me. She'd never been very tactile, at least not with me, but she seemed to be taking more comfort in my touch since her breakdown in the firing range.

"We'll get through this." I promised running my fingers through her hair.

It was quiet for a few minutes, just the sound of our breathing filling the space. "I want my mom." She admitted, somewhere between a laugh and a whine.

"Me too." I agreed. "But, we've got the best agents in the world working on getting them home, and I'm sure this airline hack will be figured out in no time."

I could feel her go still in my arms, like a cat about to pounce, before she looked up at me with huge eyes. "The hack."

"Yeah, I'm sure they'll figure it out." I assured her.

"No, Liam the hack is the problem!" She exclaimed. "I need Sophie."

"I don't think Sophie can fix that." I said, trotting behind her as she darted back to the elevator. "And to be fair, it's really only part of our current problem."

"It's connected. All of it is connected."

I got off with her at the next floor. "I thought we said it wasn't connected."

"That was before." She said before bursting back into the office. "Sophie!"

Five heads snapped towards her voice. "If you want answers you're going to have to give me a little more time." Sophie said, turning back to her screen.

"This hack on the airlines, how much computing power would that take?"

"A lot more than we have. Sorry."

Sasha shook her head in frustration. "I don't want to counteract the hack, I already know that we can't. An act of cyber-terrorism of this scale would require a ton of computers though,right?"

"Yeah, several hundred at least." Sophie said. "They would have to be spread out though, all over the world. There's no other way that they'd be able to camouflage their signals as well as they have been."

"You were right. Unification International is a front for something else." Sasha told her. "It was a front for the hack."

_Nolan_  
>Maria had always been intimidating, but calling her in the middle of a worldwide crisis definitely made it on my list of top five most nerve-wracking moments. The phone rang once, then a man's voice answered. "This is Agent Jackson, please state your name, rank, and business."<p>

We stood waiting with baited breath as Sasha spoke. "Sasha Renée Barton, asset SB0603, code name Phoenix. I need you to connect me to Director Hill."

"I'm sorry, but Director Hill is dealing with a matter of international security."

"So am I." Sasha replied. "Now, are you going to put me through or not?"

"Please hold for a moment."

It was silent again, I can't really say I expected Maria to have classical music playing but it was a bit jarring. Finally she picked up. "Director Hill."

"We have some information that might be useful." Sasha said. She explained about Unification International and our suspicions that the organization was actually a cover for the hack on the airline transmissions.

"I just put a team on it. This doesn't explain the kidnapping though. Why would they want your sister?"

"They didn't, they wanted Ella. You can probably guess why."

"Her medical records following the accident were redacted." Maria insisted.

"The witnesses weren't." Sasha reminded her. "And there were plenty of those."

"So we can assume we've got an international criminal trying to take over the world?"

Andrew stood up and took the phone from Sasha. "Actually, we think there's a team. Pierre Lagarde, the French billionaire, is one of the company's Co-Founders. If there's profit to be made off this plan, he'll find it. Elva Oryek seems to be the mastermind though. She doesn't bring any money into the partnership, so we can assume she's manipulating Lagarde into funding her ideas."

"You think she could do that?" Maria asked.

"Easily." Andrew assured her. "She could have him dumping money into this and believing the whole thing is his idea. Then there's Dr. Gregory Ashby. He was a medical student at Oxford, graduated in the middle of his class, used to work in medical research. Oryek likely roped him in with the promise of money and recognition."

"Do I want to know how you came by this information?"

"No," Isabelle chimed in "you really don't."

"My agents have pinpointed buildings owned by Unification International in eight major cities around the world, including a warehouse on the edge of New York." Maria said after brief pause her end of the line.

"That's probably where Kyler is." Sasha said, taking the phone back. "This needs to be a unified strike. How fast can you get teams in position?"

"Not as fast as I would like. Without jets it will take almost four hours."

Sasha looked around at the rest of us. "We can be ready by then."

"No offense, but you're assets not agents. I can't let you be a part of a Strike Team." Maria said. "I'm sorry, but there's miles of red tape here."

"Let us run extraction then. We'll go in and get Kyler and your agents can focus on the suspects." Sasha pleaded. "We've gotten this far, let us see this through."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. "Report to me with an extraction plan in an hour." Maria said. "And you're explaining this to your parents."

Sasha thanked her and the call ended. "Sophie, I need everything you can give me on the warehouse in New York. We've got work to do."

**Three Hours Later**  
><em><span>Ella<span>_  
>Sophie handed me a headset as she settled into her chair. "Here you go. You'll be able to hear the Strike Team through this as soon as they're in position." She explained. The screens in front of us were lit up with diagrams, maps, and communications. "Rigel, this is Firewall. You and Polaris are in position." She said.<p>

"Copy that." Andrew's voice said through the tiny device that was tucked into the ear left uncovered by the headset. I wished I could offer some words of encouragement, but the device only allowed me to hear what was said between everyone wearing the Stark-made comms units.

Sophie and I scanned the screens in front of us. Andrew and Isabelle had arrived at their designated position and the GPS tracker in the car allowed us to follow their movements. Everyone else was off the radar though, waiting to turn their comms on until the last possible second.

"I don't know how people can do this every day." I said, anxiously waiting for more little dots to appear on the screen and assure me that everyone else was all right.

"Just sit tight." Sophie said. "And tell me as soon as the Strike Team is in position."

I nodded, trying to remember that it was most important that I focus on coordinating the Strike Team and our own makeshift extraction unit. I nearly jumped out of my seat when a voice spoke through the headset. "Kappa to Canary, Strike Team is in position." Said a gruff voice.

"Copy that." I confirmed, signaling to Sophie that the team was ready.

It was a few seconds before anything happened, then there was a slight crackle in my other ear, followed by the sound of Liam's voice. "Legacy is in position." He said. I relayed the information to the SHIELD agent through the headset.

After a few more seconds Nolan's voice joined the mix. "This is Jaeger, I am in position." He confirmed.

That just left… "Phoenix reporting." Said Sasha's voice. "Ready when you are."

I took a deep breath. "Kappa, you are clear to go."

I heard a countdown on the other end, followed by a loud bang. There was no going back now.

* * *

><p><em>AN: If you haven't visited ___tlosad . tumblr . com (there's a link to it in my bio too)_ PLEASE check it out. It's been great so far and the more questions we get, the better. And if you want me to update again in the near future, please please please leave a comment. I love to hear what you guys think, even if it's just 'Cool'._


	6. The Extraction

_A/N: Again, if you are at all triggered by blood or torture this chapter may not be for you. If you would rather skip it I would be happy to give you a trigger-free synopsis, just leave a comment of drop me a message. Otherwise, enjoy!_

* * *

><p><em><span>Kyler<span>_  
>I'm not proud of it, but eventually my body betrayed me. For nearly three hours I played Ashby's little games until the invitation of dark and deep unconsciousness became too much.<p>

_Suddenly I was six years old, standing in the hallway with my dance bag in hand, looking through the open door of my parents' room. Mom was wearing jeans and a black tank top that revealed a shiny white scar on her shoulder. Daddy walked over to her from somewhere out of view, tucking a stray bit of hair behind her ear before his attention fell on the scar. A look passed between them, one that said a thousand things that I couldn't understand. They looked…tired. _

_"I should have been there."_

_"We both know that wasn't possible." She said. What happened next surprised me: Daddy leaned down and pressed a kiss to her scarred shoulder. My parents were rarely openly affectionate, so the blatant display captivated me. _

_"Hey, Birdy. You ready for dance class?" Daddy asked, noticing me in the doorway. I nodded and he swung me up into his arms. I waved to Mom as he carried me to the elevator._

_"Daddy, why is Mommy so sad?"_

_He pressed the button for the garage. "What do you mean, sweetie?"_

_"You kissed Mommy's owie and it didn't get better. Is that why she looks sad?" _

_"Mommy was just remembering something sad. She's okay now."_

_"Oh. Why are you sad?"_

_"I'm not sad."_

_"Yeah you are. You looked sad when you looked at Mommy's owie."_

_"Well, Mommy's owie made me sad."_

_"Why?"_

_"You're very inquisitive today, aren't you?" He said. I just smiled and nodded. "Well, one time Mommy had to go somewhere and I couldn't be there and she got hurt. I was sad because I couldn't protect her."_

_"Because you love her?" _

_"Because I love her very much."_

_"Do you love me very much?" The scene grew blurry as the elevator chimed and the doors opened. Suddenly I was standing on my own two feet, holding a champagne flute instead of the little dance bag. _

_"I'm afraid," Nolan said, stepping into the elevator "that I love you entirely too much."_

_"You don't mean that."_

_"You know that I do." He insisted. "It's okay to be afraid."_

_"I'm not afraid of anything." I lied, glancing down at the champagne flute in my hand. _

_It was filled to the brim with blood._

_"Nolan?" I looked back up, hoping he would come through with an explanation, but his eyes were glued to the wall behind me. "What are you looking at?" I asked._

_When I turned around all I saw was red. Red blood, streaming from red rope-bound wrists, spilling onto red hair, and dripping over a red dress. And then I saw blue-the silvery blue of my sister's dead eyes- and the sound of shattering glass filled my ears. _

I jolted awake, eyes flying open as the doors in front of me slid open and Oryek came storming in. For a brief moment I could hear shouting and a series of loud bangs before the doors slid closed. Something was very wrong.

"You're going to start talking." She said through gritted teeth.

My blank stare was met with a firm slap to the face and I could taste the blood as it seeped around my teeth. Why was my mouth bleeding? I grasped at the disjunct memories of what had happened before I passed out. I remembered the jolt of electricity as it seized my body, the sting of a knife against my skin, and the pinch of a needle. I had no idea what order those memories went in, and none of them explained the metallic warmth that was washing over my tongue.

"If you want to leave this building alive, you're going to start talking." She repeated. I realized for the first time that there was a gun in her hand.

"It's too late." I said, tilting my head so the blood trickling down my face would slide away from my eye. When had that started? Overhead, dull light forced its way through the grimy glass and I guessed that it was sometime in the late afternoon, although the sun wouldn't be setting for several hours. "They're coming for me."

She was losing her control rapidly, which told me that the situation outside the doors was deteriorating rapidly. I was a loose end, and she had come to tie me up. "Nobody can get to you in here. Not SHIELD, not the CIA or the FBI. Whoever you think is coming for you will leave with your limp, pathetic little body."

I managed to laugh through all the blood in my mouth. "You haven't met my sister."

_Sasha_  
>It didn't take long to climb onto the roof and stash the bow I had used. "I have eyes on Mourning Dove." I said, peering through the filthy glass of the skylight. Down below I could make out Kyler strapped to a chair in the center of the room. She looked unconscious and I couldn't see anyone else.<p>

Over the comms unit in my ear I could hear Sophie saying that Strike Team Kappa had breached the main doors of the building. "Phoenix, Jaeger, and Legacy are clear to enter." She said. "Proceed with caution."

No sooner had she said the words, than a woman came storming into the room below. "Legacy, are you in position?" I asked urgently as she approached my sister.

"Almost there." Liam said.

"Jaeger?" I tried.

"Ready." Nolan confirmed as Liam repeated himself.

Down below me the woman drew a gun. "I'm going in!" I said, pulling out my Glock.

I could hear protests from Liam and Nolan, but I was already plummeting through the glass.

_Kyler_  
>Apparently Oryek wasn't going to leave anything to chance. Almost before the sentence had finished, she had drawn her gun. "I don't intend to." She spat.<p>

Then suddenly it was raining glass as the skylight shattered overhead and Sasha dropped from the sky looking like an avenging angel, all black clothes and fiery hair. My captor went reeling backwards, only to fall to the ground as my sister rolled into a standing position.

Oryek scrambled to grab the gun that had fallen from her hand and Sasha was on top of her in seconds. I almost couldn't process quickly enough the way my sister leapt at her, pinning her to the ground and drawing a knife at the same time. "You're very lucky I'm under strict orders not to kill you." Sasha said, leveling the blade in her hand with the spot where the woman's throat stood exposed.

"You don't have what it takes." She jeered and I could sense the tension of doubt that seized my sister's shoulders.

Then, Elva Oryek made a terrible mistake. She went for her gun, and suddenly the knife was gone from her throat and protruding from her hand with a sickening crunch.

Instantly the room erupted into chaos. Oryek's screams rang in my ears as a huge blast shook the doors open and two people came bursting in. In my delirious and bloody state it took me a moment to realize that it wasn't Uncle Tony and Uncle Steve. Liam was holding his Smith & Wesson in one hand and a very familiar shield in the other, and I realized that Nolan had blasted the doors down with a repulsor blast from the crimson gauntlet that encased his left hand.

Liam rushed over to Sasha, lifting her off of Oryek while Nolan worked on my bindings.

I don't think I'll ever be able to explain it, but as he knelt in front of me, I was suddenly very self-conscious. "I must look like shit." I mumbled and a little bit of blood trickled out of my mouth.

He lifted up the hand that wasn't making use of a lethal weapon and used it to swipe at the blood that was making its way down my cheek. "I think you might be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." He said before turning to Liam and Sasha. "Tell medical to start moving in."

"What do we do about her?" Liam asked, nodding at the woman who lay whimpering on the ground.

"You two get Ky to the rendezvous point. I'll catch up once I've delivered our little friend here to the Strike Team." Sasha decided, pulling a pair of handcuffs from her belt. She knelt over and yanked the knife upwards in one swift motion, and this time Oryek's screams were ear-shattering.

"My hand!" She screeched. "You bitch!"

Sasha rolled her eyes, paying no attention to the steady flow of blood that had started pouring from the wound as she bound the woman's hands behind her back. "Calm down. It's just a couple broken bones. Seriously, you'll live."

Nolan tried to help me stand, but the world seemed to be spinning around me and I couldn't stay upright for long. Luckily, Liam managed so sweep me up in his arms before I hit the floor. "Hey Dove. You gave us a hell of a scare."

"Nice shield." I said, as Nolan pulled out his Glock and prepared to lead us to the rendezvous point.

"We thought it would be a good idea to bring out the big guns." He said.

I think I nodded. At least, I tried to nod before everything went black again. The last thing I heard was the sound of a gun going off, and the little bit of my brain that could focus on it hoped it wasn't aimed at us.

_Nolan_  
>"How's she doing?" I called over my shoulder as we forced our way towards the exit. Chaos had erupted around us and our progress through the fray was slow.<p>

"In and out." Liam replied. I risked a brief glance back to see that he was protecting her head with the shield in his hand. I didn't like the grayish pallor of her skin, or the fact that she seemed to be bleeding from a new spot every time I looked at her.

Most of the people in the building had submitted to the control of the Strike Team, but a handful of the mercenaries in the building weren't going to come quietly, and they really didn't want us to leave with their prisoner.

The first one that had come at us had been a bulky, graceless mass. A quick repulsor blast had taken him out for the count, and I had eft the next one on the floor and bleeding from his thigh.

Now a third merc was barreling towards us and before I even had the chance to decide on a plan of attack, a streak of auburn hair and black leather had pounced on him like a tiger.

"Keep moving." Sasha warned, lighting up the sides of his neck with the widow's bites on her wrists. "SHIELD already has Ashby and Legarde. Now that Oryek's in custody the rest are bound to run."

Sure enough, as we rounded the corner of the hallway another black-clad meathead came lunging towards us. Sasha didn't hesitate as she matched him blow for blow, ducking under and around his large limbs with the grace of a leaf on the wind. With the redhead distracting our latest attacker, Liam and I were able to make it the last few yards to the exit.

I breathed a sigh of relief when a big, black sedan pulled up in front of us. Andrew yielded the driver's seat to me and helped Liam ease Kyler into the back of the vehicle where Isabelle was already waiting. As soon as Sasha caught up with us and slid into the back we were off. Liam sat in the passenger's seat, giving directions as I steered towards the nearest hospital.

In the back I could hear Isabelle saying things like "dehydration" and "blood loss" and "electrical burns" but I tried to block it out and focus on the road.

Through the comms unit in my ear I could hear Sophie saying that a trauma specialist was standing by, and the words sent a chill through my spine. Kyler had been physically traumatized, and there was no telling what kind of mental effects that was going to have.

It seemed like an eternity before we pulled up in front of the hospital and Kyler was wheeled away on a gurney with Isabelle and Andrew following along to spout facts about her condition.

Liam, Sasha and I stood on the sidewalk gazing after them. "We actually did it." Liam said with awe written all over his face.

"We really did." Sasha confirmed. "Now it's up to her."

**Two Hours Later**  
><em><span>Sasha<span>_  
>It felt like we had been in the waiting room for days.<p>

I had been steadily working the adrenaline out my system for the past hour, walking random patterns around the waiting room while Nolan bounced his leg uncontrollably. I couldn't figure out what could be taking so long.

"You have to stop pacing." Liam said from his chair in the corner. He had been unbelievably calm since we'd arrived. Typical really, because there's no point in having a perfect opposite if they can't be calm when you're losing your mind. The way he sat still in his chair taking deep breaths and following me with his eyes was almost calming, and I realized suddenly that I needed him. He was the calm to my chaos, good in all the places where I was bad.

I was about to ask what on earth was keeping him so patient when the door opened and the three of us all flew to our feet.

It was Andrew and Izzy, both looking a bit tired but .

"How is she?" I asked before the door had even finished closing.

"She's recovering well." Isabelle assured me. "She's become more alert, but she still needs lots of rest and attention. Have you heard from anyone yet?"

"I talked to my parents about an hour ago." I said. "They should be home tonight."

"That's good. We were going to go back home and get showered and changed out of these clothes." Andrew said, motioning to blood speckled shirts they where both wearing. "Did any of you want to come with?"

All three of us turned down the invitation. "Can I see her?" I asked.

Izzy nodded. "The doctors have said that she can have someone in the room with her for now, but only one visitor at a time. She's in room 183."

I couldn't help but feel nervous as I followed the hallway, the numbers on the doors growing closer and closer to 183 as I went. It was silly, but I didn't know what to expect when I opened the door and it was making me more uneasy than it should have. So for some stupid reason I stood outside the door labeled 183 and braced myself for the worst imaginable scene.

It wasn't nearly as bad as I had pictured, and yet somehow it was still horrible.

Wires and machines seemed to be connected to every exposed piece of skin, beeping rhythmically and dripping artificial nutrients into her bloodstream. I was happy to see that she was breathing on her own, but there were at least two machines focused on monitoring her heart.

"You should work on your poker face, little sister." She teased.

I rolled my eyes and let some of the tension melt away from my shoulders. "Seven minutes younger than you and I'm never going to hear the end of it, am I?"

"Not as long as I'm around."

"That better be for a damn long time." I said.

She smirked. "You and I both know I won't go down easily."

I sat down in the chair next to her bed, tucking my legs up underneath me. "I think you've definitely proven that."

I told her that our parents would be home soon, and tried to keep her mind off the pain. She smiled when I told her about Andrew and Izzy. "It took long enough. They deserve to be happy."

She seemed a little unfocused after that, so I told her she should try to sleep. It wasn't long before her eyes closed and the cocktail of drugs in her system pulled her under.

After almost an hour the symphony of beeps and clicks and deep breaths was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Izzy brought dinner and a change of clothes if you want it." Nolan said, popping his head in. "I can stay with her for a while."

I motioned for him to come in and gave him my seat. If I could trust my sister with anyone it was him.

_Kyler_  
>When I woke again I could see that night had fallen outside my window.<p>

"Hey Birdy, how are you feeling?"

My eyes flew open at the sound of his voice. "Daddy, you're home!"

He smiled down at me with the same silvery blue eyes my sister did. "Maria practically shut down traffic to get us here." He told me. "You had us scared to death. And for good reason I see."

"I'm fine." I tried to protest.

"You know, you and your mom say that the same way. And I can tell when it's not true." He picked up the clipboard at the end of my bed and started reading off the list of . "Bruised ribs, electrical burns, a large collection of cuts, a missing molar, and you were injected with a mixture of ketamine and LSD."

"Oh." I said lamely. "Well, I'm fine now."

He sighed, looking down at the ground. "Look, I know I can't convince you to give up a life with SHIELD, not if you've got your mind set on it, but there are other ways you can go about it. When you're better, Maria wants to have you reevaluated as an asset of SHIELD. I don't know exactly where she wants you to go from here, but I think you should consider all of your options before you jump headfirst into becoming an agent."

"Mom's out in the hallway having this same conversation with Sasha, isn't she?"

"Not _exactly_ the same." He insisted.

"Daddy, I know this isn't a path you would have chosen for me, especially given the way that you and Mom got on it, but I believe that this is what I'm meant to do. What happened these last couple of days has only made me more sure."

He sat down next to me and picked up my hand. "All of you kids have always been so passionate about helping people, Andrew does it with psychology, Isabelle does it with medicine, Nolan does it with machines, and you and your sister do it with fists. But you have a lot of other talents too, and I don't want you to look back and regret wasting them." I opened my mouth to reassure him that I was certain of what I wanted, but he cut me off. "All I'm saying is that when Maria presents you with your options, you should consider carefully."

"Okay, I promise I will."

He smiled and squeezed my hand before rising from the chair again. "Get some more sleep okay?" He said, heading for the door. He stopped suddenly with his fingers still on the handle. "Oh, and you should know I'm not mad about the tattoo." He grinned.

"Well, they would have found out eventually, super spies or not." I consoled myself after the door had closed. Parents were like that.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Just an epilogue and then this story will officially be done! If have anything you'd like to say, please do leave a comment or message me, and as usual there's a link to the Q&A blog (tlosad . tumblr . com) on my bio page where you can ask questions to these characters to your heart's content. Thanks to everyone who's stuck wit this story, and I'll see you on the next chapter! _


	7. The Decision

_Kyler_  
>I was out of the hospital two days later, and back to training three days after that. Of course, the doctors had warned me to avoid overexerting myself, which meant that every workout was monitored. In fact, Nolan and I where sparring back and forth over the mats on the floor when Maria came strutting into the gym two weeks after I was released.<p>

"Not bad Stark. Keep this up and you might actually make top marks in combat this year." She said. I had almost forgotten that we were due for our annual asset evaluations that weekend.

I signaled for a time-out and walked over to where Maria was standing, grabbing my water bottle on the way. "To what do we owe the pleasure, Director?" I asked.

"I need to talk to you." Maria said, direct as always. "Why don't you have a shower and meet me upstairs?"

"What did you do?" Nolan asked as rinsed the sweat from my body. He was standing in the shower stall next to me and I could smell his body wash drifting over the barrier.

"Nothing, I swear." I said, racking my brains for something big enough for the Director of Operations to show up at the Tower unannounced.

It wasn't long before we were changed and taking the elevator up the the main floor. "I'm just going to head down to the workshop." He said, as the doors opened. "Good luck!"

When I walked into the kitchen, Maria and Pepper were laughing over two cups of coffee. "I'll let you get down to business." Pepper said, excusing herself. "Do stop by more often though, we hardly get to see you these days."

I stood awkwardly at the edge of the room for a moment, not sure what Maria expected me to do. "Come sit." She said, indicating the barstool across from her.

I perched on the edge of the seat obediently. "What's this about?"

She took a sip from her coffee cup before casually responding. "I've decided reject your application to SHIELD's Operations Academy."

My heart faltered for a moment before restarting at twice its usual rate. "What? You can't, the doctors cleared me for all of my usual activities. I'm fine!" I insisted.

Her blue eyes regarded me coolly. "As the Director of Operations, I do in fact have the right to turn away applicants to the Academy under my command. And I know you're fine. I've seen you in action, you're at the top of your game."

"Why then?" I asked. I had had top combat scores for years, spoke more languages that many full-fledged agents, and I'd even gotten a perfect GPA the past semester. There was no reason for her to reject me.

"Because I feel that it would be a complete waste of time and resources to send you to an institution that can't teach you anything while a position that requires your unique skill set remains vacant."

"My skill set?" I echoed. What was that supposed to mean? What could I possibly do that none of her agents could?

She reached into her briefcase, pulling out a file and placing it in front of me. "Christina Parsons is the daughter of a very high ranking FBI agent."

The smiling, dark haired girl in the picture at the top of the papers hardly looked like a threat, but then again neither had Elva Oryek. "You want me to take her out?" I asked, looking over the next part of the file.

Maria laughed, actually laughed, before shaking her head. "Maybe for coffee. She needs someone capable to discreetly look after her when she starts school in the fall. I think you're the one for the job, so I've come to make you a deal. You make sure this girl makes it to graduation day, and I'll make sure you get your badge."

"I don't know what to say."

"Say yes."

I blinked a few times to make sure this was really happening. "Okay, yes. I'll do it."

"I was hoping you'd say that." She smiled as she pulled another folder out and placed it in front of me. "Here are all of the documents you'll need. Everything has been worked out with the school, you just need to make sure you're physically prepared. You'll find a tentative schedule and your room assignments in there, and a document with the class expectations and dress code."

"Dress code?" I asked, pulling the file towards me. What kind of college has a dress code?

"Solid colored leotards only Barton, there are certain expectations at the Boston Conservatory."

_Liam_  
>"Is he talking yet?" I asked as Sasha walked out of the interrogation room.<p>

She nodded, cracking open the folder in her hand. " Kidnapping, assault, unauthorized possession of a deadly weapon, treason, terrorism, and attempted murder. I guess he didn't want to add obstruction of justice to the list. He spilled as soon as I told him that Ashby and Legarde had both already stood trial and that Oryek would be in prison by the end of the week."

"Impressive." I followed her to the office of one of Maria's higher-ranking agents, where she returned the documents she had been reading off to me.

"I just wish I could have been there when they were questioning Oryek." Sasha said.

Her parents had been allowed to conduct Ashby, Oryek and Legarde's interrogations, and had eventually discovered the full scope of their plan. We had been right that Oryek was the mastermind, and had roped Legarde into the scheme with the promise of an exponential return on his investment when they controlled every airline in the world.

Finding out why she had kidnapped Kyler was more difficult though, and apparently Natasha had had to threaten to stab her through the other hand before she would admit her reasons. Oryek insisted that she had only allowed Ashby so much control because he had promised her that he could create an unstoppable army for her. All he needed was a sample of blood from one of Captain America's children. When he'd spoken to Ella at the gala, he had decide that abducting her would be the easiest way to get that. Obviously they hadn't been planning on Kyler shooting one of their mercenaries and sacrificing herself so Sasha and Ella could escape though, and now Ashby, Legarde, and Oryek were going to be behind bars for a very long time.

I was pulled back to the present by the sound of Sasha's voice. "Did you know she'll need multiple surgeries to reconstruct her hand?" She asked, grinning at the fact that she had caused such severe damage.

"You're incredibly terrifying sometimes." I informed her as I followed her down another slate gray hallway.

She led me towards the training area on the base, red ponytail swishing behind her as she walked. "You haven't run screaming yet." She noted before ducking into the women's locker room.

We met back up in the gym, both changed into training gear and ready to tackle a long workout. Our asset evaluations were just around the corner and we both wanted to make top marks this year. It also didn't hurt that we had both turned in applications for SHIELD's Operations Academy, which provided a nice incentive to stay at the top of our game.

The gym was pretty quiet at this time of day, mostly just a handful of probationary agents and trainees milling about, so we took the time to warm up and stretch out on the mats before beginning our session. I was surprised to see that she had chosen to forgo her usual all black attire in favor of charcoal capris and a bright teal training tank that made her hair stand out even more than usual.

"Time limit?" She asked, standing up and facing me.

I shook my head. "No, first one to hit the mat loses. No matter how long it takes."

She nodded and took her place across from me on the mats, signaled that she was ready, and then came at me as soon as I had done the same.

It always amazed me how differently Sasha's fights with me where from the ones she had with her sister or Nolan. When the twins sparred, it was like watching an elaborate dance with Sasha throwing sharp punches and her sister avoiding them in fluid motions, only to retaliate with a swift kick of her own. Sometimes it could take several minutes before one of them found the tiny window of opportunity they needed to tip the scales in their favor. With Nolan she was almost completely offensive, constantly pushing him backwards towards the edge of the mat with insistent attacks from her feet and hands.

She fought me very differently though, in a way that challenged the both of us, exploiting my strength and size and taking advantage of her speed. She would be easy for me to overpower, but I had to catch her first — and she made that damn near impossible. Which is probably why, after what must have been close to fifteen minutes, she had gained the upper hand. I had misjudged her intentions on one hit, turning to counter it and leaving my back exposed just long enough for her to leap onto it and drag me to the ground, gracefully rolling out of the way before I could come crashing down on top of her.

"Best two out of three?" She asked, holding out her hand to help me up.

"How about a little two-on-two?" We both turned around to see that a handful of agents had gathered on the edge of the mat. The one that had spoken up, a stocky guy with a buzz cut, stepped forward. "It'll be fun."

"Pick your partner." Sasha said before I could so much as open my mouth to protest.

He summoned a tall brunette girl from the back of the pack and the two of them joined us on the mats. They couldn't have been higher than level two agents, but my guess was that they were trainees. Sasha went over the terms of the fight while I watched, taking a long drink of water and trying to listen in on the whispers of the assembled spectators.

We shook hands before taking up our stances, and at the sound of a bystander's whistle we were on each other. I could tell right away that the agent I was fighting had picked the wrong partner. Her long limbs weren't nearly fast enough to land a blow against Sasha, and hardly moving her feet wasn't helping either.

I was faring just as well. My opponent and I were more physically matched, but his fighting style was completely textbook for a graduate of the Operations Academy — a blend of boxing and Taekwondo that allowed me to anticipate his next move without much effort.

It didn't take long for Sasha to duck under her opponent's arm and sweep her feet out from under her, and when I landed a solid kick in the stocky guy's chest and knocked him over I'm almost positive I saw some money exchanging hands between a few of the agents who were watching.

"Who's next?" Sasha asked, straightening up.

A commanding voice from the back of the room made the group scramble. "Playtime's over Miss Barton."

"Uncle Phil!" She exclaimed, bounding over to him.

"Careful, Sash. You're gonna squeeze him to death." I said, laughing at her childish antics. It was nice to see her drop her icy persona every now and then in favor of warm affection.

The former Director shook his head. "I leave for two weeks and you're already picking on Maria's agents? She's not going to be happy if you break one of the trainees."

"Maria wouldn't get mad at me." She said, helping to smooth the creases she'd made on his suit jacket. "I'm her favorite."

"Well, be that as it may, you have to be more careful with the new agents. We can't have them getting scared off."

"Fine." She agreed, pouting dramatically. Oh gosh, not that pout again.

"Maria wanted me to have a conversation with the two of you. Why don't you hit the showers? She's out of her office for the afternoon, we can talk in there."

"Are we in trouble?" Sasha asked as we hastened towards the locker rooms.

"I have no idea."

**Two hours later**  
><em><span>Sasha<span>_  
>It had just started to sink in when Liam pulled the car into the garage of the Tower.<p>

"Should we say anything?" He asked, glancing over at me.

I bit my lip for a moment, mulling it over in my head. "Let's wait until dinner." I decided. "Then we can tell everyone at the same time."

"Good idea." He turned the car off and the two of us slid out, heading for the elevator.

"Hey Liam."

He stopped in his tracks, turning around to face me. "Yeah, Sash?"

Now or never. I stepped closer so we were standing toe-to-toe. "I never thanked you for having my back when Kyler was taken. You've been nothing but loyal and understanding, and I've done nothing to deserve that from you."

"Sasha, you don't have to earn my loyalty, you're my friend." He interrupted.

"And that's exactly why I don't deserve it!" I countered. "Because despite my better judgement, I don't want to be your friend — at least, not if it means I have to sit back and watch you be happy with someone else. And really that just proves that you shouldn't even be wasting your time with me at all, because that's really fucking selfi- hmm…"

I hadn't really considered how our height difference would factor into things like kissing. In the end though, it didn't seem like an issue at all when my toes were dangling a couple inches off the floor and he was holding me flush against him like I weighed nothing, cradling the back of my head with one hand. All that mattered was the gentle way his lips were moving against mine, and how it turned everything else in my head into white noise.

I was slow to open my eyes when my feet found the ground again, but when I did his brown eyes met mine. "There is not a millisecond that I spend with you that I consider wasted time. Got it?" I nodded as best I could with his resting on either side of my face. "Good." He said before leaning back down for another quick kiss.

It didn't end up being very quick.

By the time we (finally) made it upstairs, half the Tower's residents were either in the kitchen or helping to set the table.

"How did the interrogation go?" Mom asked, handing me a stack of plates.

I got to work setting them each on a placemat. "It went well. He was easy to break once he found out Legarde and his money weren't going to be bailing him out."

"Good. I'll be glad to finally put all of this behind us."

I nodded in agreement. "Oh, we ran into Uncle Phil while we were there. He says he'll stop by sometime this week, he just has to get settled into the new place first."

Liam and I spent the next several minutes recounting all of the details he'd given us about his trip, and by the time we had finished everyone was taking their seats while Liam and I stood awkwardly behind our chairs.

"Um, we have something to announce." Liam tried, glancing around the table as all eyes turned to the two of us.

"Well you better not be getting married, that's all I have to say." Steve said, taking a sip of his water.

"It's not that." I said as Liam's face reddened. "We're moving to Los Angeles."

There was a chorus of confusion and chocking noises as Sharon patted Steve's back, trying to help him cough up the water he'd inhaled.

"But, why?" Ella asked. "That's so far."

"SHIELD needs us to run a long-term op at UCLA to gather intelligence." Liam explained.

On my right, Kyler stood up. "I feel like now would be a good time to tell you all that I'm moving to Boston." She blurted. "Maria's asked me to work a security detail there instead of training at the Academy."

The table erupted into questions again. "Settle down! Why don't we all sit down and let them explain?" Pepper suggested, diplomatic as ever.

With everyone seated and quiet Kyler explained that she would be attending the Boston Conservatory to act as security for another student.

"Boston?" Nolan asked. "That's only twenty minutes from Cambridge."

Kyler just shrugged. "That's where Maria needs me."

"So are you two running security too?" Sharon asked, as casually as she would ask about our plans for the weekend.

Liam glanced over at me, as if wondering how much we should say. "No, we'll be running surveillance and gathering intel."

"You're posing as students then?" Sophie asked.

"Yup." I said shortly.

Dad piped up from further down the table. "So, what are you studying?"

"Uncle Phil thought linguistics would be a good choice in major for me." I said. "I'll also be minoring in Russian."

Mom raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Russian?"

"Еще один простой класс." I said, proving my point that the classes would be easy. "У меня был очень хороший учитель."

"You know, UCLA has one of the top three linguistics programs in the world." Pepper offered.

"That's what Uncle Phil said too." I said, hoping this conversation would be ending soon. I had already gone through one interrogation today, I didn't feel like being on the receiving end of one. Under the table Liam gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

"What about you, Liam?" Izzy asked. "Did you pick a major?"

"I'm majoring in history." He said. "It's always been my favorite subject, so I figured it would be a good choice."

"So, when are you guys leaving?" Ella asked, trying unsuccessfully to hide her sadness.

"We're not sure yet." Liam said.

Sophie looked down the table at us. "Probably about the same time as Andrew and Izzy though, right?"

"Look, there are still a few details to work out, but we'll tell you guys as soon as we know the details. Any other questions?" I asked, a bit irritated.

"Yeah, I have one." Nolan said, raising his hand as if we were in a classroom. "Are you two holding hands under the table?"

If the sudden reappearance of our hands on top of the table didn't give us away, Liam's blush certainly did.

I decided he was really cute when he was embarrassed.

* * *

><p><em>AN: This ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated, so I have decided to extend the story by __**adding another chapter**__. The next update will be the final one for tlosad, and then I will probably be taking a short break from this universe before starting a collection of drabbles and short stories revolving around these guys. The Q & A Blog (tlosad . tumblr . com) is open, and will remain open, so please keep sending in questions! As usual, I would love to hear your thoughts so please leave a review! _


	8. The End (For Now)

_A/N: So, this is it! TLoSaD ends here, but I'll be starting a sequel in June made up of short drabbles about these guys and their adventures and the blog will remain active and updated. I'm so grateful for everyone who's stuck with this to the end, and I hope you all enjoy this final chapter. Thanks, and happy reading!_

**July**  
><em><span>Nolan<span>_  
>The first day of July had been hot and sticky, dragging all the smells of the city down to the streets and the sidewalks to mingle with the sweat of pedestrians. It wasn't until the moon started pushing the sun out of the sky that the city finally began to cool.<p>

"It's pretty, isn't it?" I asked, walking out onto the helipad as dusk began to bleed shades of sapphire and onyx into the sunset.

If Kyler was surprised by my appearance she didn't show it, just hummed in agreement as she swung her legs over the edge of the building.

"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting down next to her.

"Why would anything be wrong?"

"You always come up here when you're upset." I said. "Even the great Kyler Barton has habits."

It was a few moments before she said anything and I started to think that maybe she didn't want to talk, but then she let out an almost imperceptible sigh. "Andrew wants me to have monthly psych evals until the end of the year." She admitted.

"But you don't want to."

She shook her head making her golden curls brush against her neck. "I just want to let this go, not relive it every thirty days so I can have my brain picked apart."

"He just wants to help." I reminded her gently. "You haven't talked to anyone about what happened."

"Yes I have, I told everything to the agent at the hospital."

"Okay, you've talked about what happened in the warehouse, but you haven't said anything about what happened to you."

"I just want to let it go." She repeated, turning to look at me for the first time. Her eyes still looked like a kaleidoscope of blues and greens, but there was a hardness to them now that told me she was unsure of what to do.

"I don't know if you can let it go." I said. "I think this might be one of those things you have to face before you can move past it."

She didn't acknowledge that I had said anything, just turned her head to look back out over the city. I knew she had heard though, and she'd talk about it in her own time.

It was well after sunset when that time came, as if she had been waiting for the safety of darkness to admit what couldn't in the light of day. "I don't remember a lot." She told me. "You saw the reports, you know the kinds of drugs I was on. They shocked me first though, I remember that the best. And every time they flipped that switch I thought to myself 'If this wasn't Ella, if this was some random asset or government secret they were after, would I still be fighting right now?' And I don't know the answer to that. It scares me."

"Kyler, you don't have to…"

She shook her head and cut me off. "No, you're right, I need to get this out. After they gave me the drugs everything became pretty unclear. I don't know what was real or fake, but I remember Sasha falling from the sky, and I remember your voice — you said I was the most beautiful thing you'd ever seen."

"Well it was true."

She laughed at that, just a little bit. "You know, I dreamt about you when I was out. Just before you guys came I had this dream that I was with my dad in the elevator and you got in with me and he disappeared. You said you loved me, and then I turned around and Sasha's body was hanging from the ceiling."

"Why do you think that those are the things your brain chose to focus on?" I probed, sounding more like Andrew than I ever thought possible. "I don't think it was random."

"I don't know. The first part wasn't even a dream really, just an old memory, and the rest… I guess they were just my fears making a guest appearance."

"So, the thought of Sasha being killed cares you?"

She shrugged. "Of course it does, but I also know that Sasha can take care of herself. I can take care of that fear with simple logic."

"And the other part?" I asked. "What I said in the dream scares you too?"

Kyler took a long breath, savoring the cool air of the night. "It's a liability. I can't risk putting you in danger, much less losing you altogether. What happened at the gala was impulsive."

"But do you regret it?" I asked. "Because I don't, and I know how badly you want to become an agent, but you can have it both ways. If anyone can make this work, it's us."

Kyler bit her lip, still staring out at the city below us. "Are you sure I'm… you're sure this is what you want?"

"Whatever you want, I'm all in. We can take this slow." I offered.

She cracked the smallest of smiles. "That sounds nice." We sat quietly for a minute, letting the moment sink in before she broke the silence. "You know, it's getting pretty chilly on this roof so if you wanted to kiss me, now would be the time."

"I always want to kiss you." I said. Then I was finally holding her, kissing her hard, reveling in the fact that she was here, and safe, and somehow wanted me. Nothing about it was like the night of the gala, there was nothing possessive in the way her hands fisted in my hoodie and the hair at the back of my neck, no lingering taste of champagne, no urgency in the way her lips moved against mine. Just city lights, and slow kisses, and the happiness that came from being together.

"What are you thinking?" She asked after I finally pulled away.

"That you're still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

_Ella_  
>We spent the week of my birthday at our house in Virginia. It was nice to be away from the Tower for a while and breathe the fresh ocean air. I don't know what it was, but something about the being there made us all wake up early. I found myself on the beach painting the sunrise every morning while Andrew and Isabelle sipped coffee on the back deck and read some sort of medical journal together. Sophie sat with them sometimes, letting Izzy braid her hair while the others got in a morning workout and our parents finally got a chance to sleep in.<p>

The Starks were headed back to New York with Izzy and Uncle Bruce the next day, and the Bartons were off to their farm the day after that. Then it would just be the four of us here until we went back to New York in about four weeks.

"Mind some company?" Sophie asked, walking up to me from the direction of the house. I motioned for her to have a seat next to me in the sand.

Out in the water Liam and Sasha were taking turns doing flips off the dock while Nolan inspected the engine of the boat. Kyler had just returned from a run up the beach, and barely took a second to strip off her tank top before jumping into the water in nothing but her shorts and a sports bra. She must have said something to Nolan that I couldn't hear because soon he was diving in after her. Over on the deck I could see Andrew shaking his head while Izzy laughed at their antics.

"It's going to be weird with all of them gone." Sophie said, watching the scene play out in front of us.

"You can say that again. I swear every time I look at a map, California moves a little bit further away from New York."

She gave me a pitying look. "Don't worry, Ells. I'll help you set up video chats with Liam every day if you want."

"Thanks. I'm just really going to miss him, you know? I'm going to miss all of them."

"But, at least we won't have to be exposed to all their mushy romantic stuff." She said, trying to lighten up the mood.

"I think it's sweet." I said, watching as Liam helped Sasha jump off of his shoulders. "They're really happy. Besides, you'll have that too one day and then you'll be changing your tune."

She laughed at that. "All that stuff is fine for them, but I refuse to let some boy make me all blush-y and ridiculous."

"Maybe some girl then." I suggested. She shot me an unamused look. "Fine, I get it, Sophie Stark refuses to ever be stupid in-love."

"That's right." She confirmed, letting a long pause stretch between us before she spoke again. "You know, now that you can drive we can go to Ben & Jerry's whenever we want."

"Ooh, and that place that sells fresh pie until two in the morning!" I remembered.

Sophie's face brightened up at that. "You know how much I love midnight pie. See? It won't be so bad. Just try to cram all of your bonding time with Liam into these next couple weeks, and then you won't miss him so badly when he leaves."

"I don't think it works like that."

Sophie just shrugged. "Hey, if you wanted a phycologist you should have talked to Drew."

**August**  
><em><span>Andrew<span>_  
>I was becoming fairly certain that this was a certifiable form of psychological torture. I had already checked my email twice, texted Isabelle and begged her to meet us for lunch, and psychoanalyzed the employee that had started to stare at me, and Sophie still hadn't come out out of the dressing room.<p>

"Are you almost done in there?" I asked, checking my phone for the umpteenth time that morning. Isabelle still hadn't responded.

"Hold on." Sophie said. "I just have to try on a few more things."

I bit back a groan. How could it possibly take this long to try on a few blouses and skirts? "Why do you even need to go shopping for the start of school? All of your classes are online."

"Mom's letting me join a debate team, and I needed some new clothes for our debates."

I looked at the menagerie of bags scattered around my feet. "All this is for your debate team?"

"Well not all of it."

"That's what I thought."

I took a slow sip of my coffee, only to choke on it when Sophie asked, "So when are you and Izzy going to get married?"

"Excuse me?" I asked, trying to expel the liquid that had mistakenly entered my trachea.

"Don't sound so surprised." Sophie teased. "You've been in love for years, everyone knows it. So, when are you gonna propose?"

"I don't know, whenever the time feels right. Why do you want us to get married so badly?"

I could almost hear Sophie roll her eyes from behind the door. "Because you guys are ridiculously in love, and that's the next logical step in your relationship. Besides, it sets a good image for the company to have a CEO that's happily married to a brilliant young humanitarian and doctor."

"What are you talking about? Mom and Dad are in charge of the company.

"Yeah, and they have been for a really long time. Don't tell me you haven't noticed that they want to step down."

"I really had no idea." I admitted. "They don't really want me running the company anyway, I have no idea what I'm doing."

Another hanger appeared over the door of the dressing room. "It may not be forever. Nolan's been looking into MIT's business school, so he may be going back after he finishes his engineering degree."

I briefly considered asking her how exactly she came across this information, only to decide that I really didn't want to know. "You don't think this has anything to do with the fact that Kyler will be in Boston for the foreseeable future? You really think he wants to take over the company?"

She finally opened the door, stepping out with her arms full of clothes. She handed the smaller stack to the attendant, then started towards the register. "I really think he does."

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see a new message from Isabelle.  
><em>Meet you guys in twenty. Love you!<em>

I sent a quick message back before following Sophie out of the store. Things were going to work out.

_Kyler_  
>After everything that had happened in the past months, going back to the farm had been a breath of fresh air, both in the literal and figurative senses. So much of my childhood had been spent here, playing in the barn, running through the orchard, or staying up late with Sasha in the house. Today my hiding place of choice was the hayloft. If I looked out the window on the far wall, I could watch my horse, Cerus, romping around the paddock with the others and tossing his head.<p>

"You've been quiet lately." There weren't many people who could sneak up on me, but having two world-class assassins for parents meant that there were a few exceptions.

Dad had a habit of walking around the farm without his hearing aids that Mom swore was going to get him killed one day, so I turned around so he could see my hands when I signed to him. _**Really? The guy who can't hear is going to tell me I'm too quiet?**_ I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"You've just been very… pensive." He said by way of clarification.

_**I guess getting kidnapped will do that to a person.**_ I signed back, looking back out at the horses.

"It's not too late to back out. You don't have to go to Boston." He said, sitting down next to me.

I shook my head almost before the words were out of his mouth. _**I want to go. I want to become an agent like you and Mom.**_

"It's not an easy life, Birdy."

I knew that much without him telling me. I had seen him and Mom go through all sorts of chaos, but they had come through it together and stronger than before. _**This is the life I want. I need a mission, something that I can focus on right now other than what happened in June.**_

"You get that from your mom, you know." He said, smiling absentmindedly. "That drive is all her."

For obvious reasons, people usually compared me with my dad, but I inherited more than my mother's eyes and the texture of her hair. Some of the things I picked up from her were totally innocent, like how to speak Russian and different ways to do my hair in less than five minutes. Other things she passed down to me were more of a side-effect of her profession, like forming an exit strategy for every building I went into or carrying at least one weapon on me at all times.

_**Is she happy about me going to Boston? I can never tell with her.**_

"We've both accepted it, and we're proud of you — both of you. It's just hard to see you two moving on without us. I'm not sure, but I think that's actually a normal thing for parents to feel."

I grinned over at him. _**What do we know about normal?**_

"You've got a good point. Do you want some lunch? I think your assassin of a mother is making macaroni." We walked back to the house together in silence, taking in the warmth of the day and the togetherness.

Mom had, in fact, made macaroni, which Sasha was helping her spoon into bowls. Dad greeted her with a kiss that usually would have made me roll my eyes, but now just made me smile. "I wondered where you'd wandered off to." She said, freeing up her hands so she could tell Dad to wash up.

I shrugged and helped Sasha set the table. "Oh, just hanging out in one of my super secret hiding spots."

"She was in the hayloft." Dad said, walking back into the kitchen with his hearing aids in.

"Traitor." I accused, pretending to be upset. In truth there was nothing secret about my hiding spots, in fact he had shown me most of them.

"Do you have everything packed that you're going to need?" Mom asked. We were leaving the next day to return to New York for a few days before everyone left for school.

I nodded, taking a bite of macaroni. It was my favorite kind, with the spiral noodles and the really thick cheese. "I got a message from my other roommate last night. We worked out what furniture each of us is going to bring, and I made sure she got the second bedroom so I'm sharing with Christina."

Next to me, Sasha made a sound that was vaguely reminiscent of a dying walrus. "We have to go furniture shopping don't we?"

"I didn't realize you were so opposed." Mom said.

"It's not that I have a problem with it, but Liam is unbelievably picky about furniture." She explained. "I mentioned Ikea the other day and he gagged, actually gagged."

"Awww, trouble in paradise?" I teased.

She arched an eyebrow at me. "This joke again?"

"It's more fun now that you guys are actually dating." I said. "Although, it doesn't seem like much has changed between you two."

Sasha smirked over at me. "Trust me, plenty has changed."

"Really? Do tell." Mom prompted, brushing a strand of her bright red hair behind her ear.

"Well, we certainly talk more. You know he calls me every night before he goes to sleep?"

"We know." Dad said. "Your room is right across he hall from ours, remember?"

"It's not just that though," she went on, eyes alight with mischief "there's also the kissing. Fantastic kissing, by the way. And who would've guessed- "

"Okay that's enough!" Dad cried reaching towards his ears. "I do not need to know about the nasty things you and Rogers get up to behind closed doors."

Sasha rolled her eyes at him. "Calm down, Dad. Liam's a perfect gentleman." She gave me a quick wink before adding, "most of the time."

"Come on Clint, you know that nobody raised by Captain Righteousness would ever do anything out of line." Mom said.

"No, but someone raised by Stark might."

I held my hands up. "Woah, when did this become battle of the boyfriends?"

"When both of you decided to start dating new people within a month of each other."

Thankfully, Mom decided that Nolan deserved her defense just as much as Liam. "You know Pepper raised him better than that." She said with finality. "Now, can we talk about something important?"

"Like what?" I asked. Goodness knows we had plenty of things to talk about. Sasha was moving across the country at the end of the week, and Nolan and I left for Massachusetts not long after.

"Like your evaluation scores?" She suggested.

Sasha and I both perked up at that. "You've seen them?" I asked. "How did we do?"

"As if either of you would have settled for less than a perfect score." Dad snorted.

"So we did well then?" Sasha asked, features flooded with a mix of relief and pride.

"Very well," Mom assured her. "In fact, I think we should celebrate tonight. I've got all the stuff for s'mores."

We enjoyed each other that night, between rounds of laughter and bites of marshmallow-chocolatey goodness. It was nice to be a family for the night without any of us worrying what the next day, the next phone call, the next assignment might bring. There would be time to worry later, but for now we were together, and together was home.

_Liam_  
>The car had been a gift from Uncle Tony — a medium sized SUV which now had the back seats folded down and most of our belongings jammed inside. With one final shove, I closed the silver hatch and Sasha and I were officially ready to go. We would be the first to leave for school this year, since driving to L.A. was the most logical way for us to get there, and the whole tower seemed to be attuned to the upcoming change.<p>

Ella had been crying intermittently all morning, and the sound of the closing door sparked a fresh round of tears. "It's so far." She whispered, sniffling into my shirt.

I smoothed some of the pale strands of hair back from her face and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. "I promise we can talk every day if you want." She nodded, squeezing me tighter than I would have thought possible.

"Every day." She echoed. "You have to promise."

"I swear on my book collection." I said, and it seemed to satisfy her.

She pulled away with one final kiss on my cheek and a quick, "love you Lemur."

"Make sure you check in when you stop for the night, okay?" Mom asked, giving me another surprisingly firm hug.

"Alright. I'll call you once we've gotten on campus too."

"That's my boy." She smiled, patting my cheek.

Dad looked like he had a thousand things to say, but he just gave me a handshake and a short "You'll do great." And then Sasha was ducking into the passenger's seat while I started the car, and before I thought to look back the Tower was blocks away and obscured by the bustle and the buildings that I had known for most of my life.

We were close to entering Pennsylvania by the time she spoke. "So I heard a little rumor." She teased, hardly giving me any information to work with.

"Really, what about?"

She took a sip from her gas station slurpee and drew out the pause before she answered. "About you. Maria says you asked your moderator to add Dothraki to your languages section. Didn't you learn anything from the whole Elvish debate?"

"It's a legitimate language." I said in Dothraki, just to prove my point. "Besides I would have been doing you a favor. If he'd let me you would have beaten your sister in the languages section of our evaluations."

"It is not a real language." She insisted, sticking to English.

"Then why did you learn it?" I countered, still stubbornly using said language.

She gave me a long glare, but when she responded it was in the same tongue as me. "Because I thought it could be useful in the field. It's important to be able to communicate discreetly."

"Or because you're just as big of a nerd as I am." I suggested, switching back to English. "I know I saw a copy of The Hobbit in one of your boxes."

"You can't prove anything." She said loftily and tossed a handful of gummy bears into her mouth.

I flicked the blinker on and switched lanes. "Trust me Sweetheart, that response tells me everything I need to know."

"Do not ever call me that again." Sasha said.

"You don't like Sweetheart?" I asked innocently. "How about Honey then? Dear? My love? Moon of my life?"

She laughed at that one, turning in her seat to give me a distractingly beautiful smile and a quiet reply. "My sun and stars."

**September**  
><em><span>Isabelle<span>_  
>"I think that's the last of it." Andrew said, stacking one final plate in the cupboard.<p>

I cast a glance around the little apartment before my eyes landed on the oven clock. "We should have worked on unpacking your place too. There's no way we'll be able to get it done tonight."

He shrugged, coming to stand next to me in the living area. "That's okay. I'll get the essentials unpacked before I go to sleep and do the rest tomorrow."

"Or you could go grab your toothbrush while I place an order at that Chinese place down the block, and you could spend the night here." I suggested, wrapping my arms around his torso.

He grinned down at me, dark blue eyes roaming my face. "That does sound preferable." He agreed before dropping a quick kiss to my lips before untangling himself from my arms. I went to search for my phone while he headed upstairs to his own apartment, where his boxes and suitcases were waiting to be emptied. They would have to wait another night it seemed.

An hour later we were cuddled up on the couch with takeout containers littering the coffee table and a documentary playing on the television.

"We should do this more often." Andrew said, the words reverberated through his chest before reaching the ear I had positioned over his heart.

I gave a sleepy hum of approval, although I'm not sure if it was approval of his idea or the way he was tracing senseless patterns on my arm. "We should do this every night."

He chuckled at that. "I think we might get sick of Chinese food and documentaries." There was a stretch of time filled only by the sound of the air conditioner and the narration of the film we were only half watching. "Do you want to get married?"

"Sorry?" I sputtered, suddenly not feeling very sleepy anymore.

"I didn't mean… I just…that wasn't a proposal." He said finally.

"What exactly was it?"

He sighed, dropping his head back on the armrest of the sofa. "It was just a question. Sophie brought it up a while ago, and I just… it seems unfair that I get to take as long as I want to decide if I want to get married and you only get a couple seconds. I guess I'm just wondering where you want this to go. Do you want to get married and have kids and live in a house in the suburbs, or do you want to roam the world together until we're old and grey?"

My heart couldn't help fluttering at how sweet the gesture was. "I don't see why we can't do a little bit of both. Get married, travel the world together, have a couple kids, work on helping people from here in the states, then maybe go back to the roaming the world thing for a while before our joints give out. If that's okay with you, that is."

"I'm okay with any plan involving the two of us growing old together." He said. "But we're never naming any of our kids after my dad."

"I can live with that. I'm quite partial to the name William anyway, so that gets top spot on the baby name list."

His hand came up to play with my hair. "What if we have girls? I've always thought Rebecca was a nice name."

We stayed like that for a long time, wrapped up in each other and planning out our future piece by piece. It was beautiful.

Sophie  
>I'll be the first to admit it, I get caught up when I'm coding. The jingle of a set of keys snapped me from my daze and drew my attention to the doorway where Ella stood smiling at me. "What time is it?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.<p>

"Oh, about one in the morning."

I closed my laptop and stretched, just starting to realize how stiff my muscles had become. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

She gave me guilty smile. "I was really craving some pie."

I jumped out of my chair and shoved my wallet in my pocket. "Well, what are we waiting for? That pie place closes in an hour."

"I had hoped you would be on board." She led me towards the elevator and down to the garage.

"Did your parents want us to bring anything back?" I asked,sliding into the passenger's seat of one of the less conspicuous cars in the structure.

She turned the key in the ignition and shifted gears. "Well, they don't exactly know we're going out."

"Do my ears deceive me, or is Ella Grace Rogers sneaking out of the house?"

"I left a note." She admitted, "but they were asleep when I went to ask and I didn't want to wake them up. Besides Liam's always saying it's better to ask forgiveness than permission right?"

I couldn't help but snort at that. "Slow down Ells. Next thing we know you'll be doing serious stuff like not smiling at random strangers and mixing your mediums."

"Hey, you remembered what a medium was!" She said proudly, turning the car onto a new block.

I shrugged. "Not everything you tell me goes in one ear and out the other." Ella had been trying to teach me about art lately, meanwhile I was helping her improve in math and science. It wasn't that she wasn't smart enough to understand the concepts, she just needed them to be explained a different way sometimes and I happened to be able to do that.

It had been surreal having just the two of us in the Tower lately. The building had always been big, but now the unusual quiet only emphasized the absence of the others. We still did our schoolwork in the office, which was strange now that we had essentially used it as a war room, but a lot about our routines had changed. At least once a week the two of us would venture out for breakfast or lunch, a feat that would have been far more difficult with five of us, and occasionally met up with Ella's best friend Damien.

I'd never been as close with her as I had been with Isabelle, or even the twins,despite the fact that she was the closest to me in age out of everyone. However, I had come to realize over the past month that we had more in common than I had thought, and that our differences were actually quite complimentary to one another's. She'd begun to feel like a sister to me in a way that only Izzy had before, and it was nice to have that relationship again. Still it gave me a bit of a jolt every time I found myself telling her a secret, or picking films I knew she liked for movie night, learning the difference between oil pastels and chalk.

"So," she started as she parked the car on the curb, "is it a chocolate mousse or a peanut butter kind of night?"

I thought about it as I slid out of the car and she joined me on the sidewalk. "I haven't decided yet." I said. A little bell jingled as I opened the door. "Maybe I'll try something new."  
>Sasha<br>Friday nights were easily my favorite part of the week. Not because I hated my classes, (I actually liked most of them) but because Friday nights were dedicated to video conferencing with everyone who was still on the east coast.

We had set up shop in Liam's room tonight, and I was sitting on his bed while he set up his laptop in front of us. "Ella texted me twice today to make sure she hadn't miscalculated the time difference." He said.

I laughed. "We've done this every Saturday since we moved and she still thinks she'll get the time messed up?"

"Maybe she just wants an excuse to text me." He said, climbing onto the bed with me. We were so squished together trying to fit onto the screen that I was practically sitting on his lap, and I honestly didn't care.

Sure enough, Ella and Sophie were the first faces to pop up. It looked like they were in the kitchen, and I could see an apron hanging from Sophie's neck.

"Hey guys, what's cooking?"

"Baking." Sophie corrected. "And they're peanut butter brownies."

I was about to say how much I missed her baking when Andrew and Isabelle popped up on screen. From the looks of it they were in Izzy's kitchen, probably sitting on her couch since I could see her bed and the door to the bathroom behind her. She had been very excited to give us an apartment tour a couple of weeks ago, even though she nearly dropped her tablet trying to do it.

The program made another little dinging sound as Kyler's face popped up on the screen. Her hair, which had grown down to her shoulders, was leaving wet marks on her shirt. She must have just gotten out of the shower. "Hard classes today?" I asked.

She nodded. "Fun though, plus we got our casting for The Nutcracker."

"What did you get?" Ella asked.

"Once everyone's logged on I'll tell you." She said.

It was only a few moments before Nolan's face materialized on the screen. "So, what did you get?" Sophie asked, all but ignoring her brother's appearance.

"Snow queen." She announced. "And CJ made first chair in the cello section."

"That's great." I said, while congratulations rang from everyone else. She and her roommate/charge had hit it off right away, so it was great to hear that both of them were doing well.

"What about you guys? What's going on in Los Angeles?" She asked.

I shrugged. "The usual. A little bit of homework, a little bit of espionage, a little bit of both at the same time."

"And surfing, don't forget the surfing." Liam added.

"You guys learned to surf?" Ella asked.

"We took two lessons." I clarified. "And only because we needed to bug the instructor's phone."

Kyler rolled her eyes. "Sure, I get the protective detail and you two get required surfing lessons. I see how it is."

"Like you didn't get a totally sweet deal." Nolan cut in.

"I think we're all right where we should be." Izzy said. "Even if we do miss each other like crazy."

Izzy talked about her schoolwork, and Andrew told us about the research he was doing. Nolan said he was making some breakthroughs on a design he had in the works, and Ella and Sophie filled us in on the things going on in the Tower. By the time the conversation wound down it had been almost an hour and a half.

"I hate to kill the fun," Kyler said "but I have my first rehearsals tomorrow. I really need to get to bed." There was a chorus of goodnight before she disappeared from the screen. One by one the rest of the group made their excuses and logged off until Liam and I were the only ones left.

"Well," he said. "It's pretty late in New York, but the night's still young for us."

"You sound like you have something up your sleeve."

"I thought we could get some milkshakes at that diner by the beach. What's it called, Marco's?"

I hopped off the tiny bed and slipped back into my shoes. "Now that sounds like an idea I can get behind. I'll drive!" I added, snatching up the keys to the SUV.

It would be a long time before Los Angeles felt like home, but I could see the draw of the sprawling, sunny city. And I had to admit, if only to myself, that I was falling in love one day at a time.


End file.
